My Little Girl Turned 10 Today / Urgent Prayer for my cousin

***Prayer Request, please pray for my cousin Hugh, he was in a serious motorcycle accient today. It's also his birthday, he's in the hospital having emergency surgery they are trying to save his leg. He also has a broken arm, and broken ribs. Thankfully his head seems to be free from injury and no internal bleeding was found. He and his wife Michelle just got married, please pray strength for her as well****

Today was my sweet Brinn's bithday. Yes 10 years ago I was blessed by God with the gift of a beautiful baby girl. Have I ever told you that Brinn's name has the meaning of Salvation. I picked it out before I even knew the Lord, but God knew. He also knew that my love for my baby girl would bring me to love and finally understand the great gift He sent to us in His son Jesus.

So here she is a newborn (sorry about the photo quality the first few pictures are scrapbook pages, and Brinn was born before I had a digital camera) She weighed in at 8lbs even and 21.5 inches long. Eighteen hours of hard labor, and then an emergency C-Section. She was face up and the cord around her neck, but she came out screaming and then peed on the nurse. (One of Brinn's favorite stories.)

She's about 4 months old in the picture above.

Brinn going to the pool at about 13 months old.

And those everyday moments from about the age of 2.

Then we move on to the age of about 5. Brinn loves the beach.

Brinns many stages of loosing those baby teeth.
So just a few blast from the past with Brinn now to todays event. I picked up Brinn from VBS at church at 12. Brinn was super excited, because she new we were going to take her to lunch, and she'd finally get to open her presents. We've been telling her that we hoped she likes the socks and underwear we got her. She kept saying "you did not get me socks and underwear." (hehe)

This is Brett and Brinn and the Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto. It's been around since 1928, and as a side not it is not a Weight Watcher friendly menu. So much for my extra points this week. Below is the 3 of us. Brinn just started in on her presents.
Brinn's favorite color is green. She loves it and wants everything in Green. She's been asking for a Nintendo DS for about a year, and finally convinced me that she would actually play it. The part she didn't like was that they don't come in green. Silver, black, red, blue, and pink but no green. So around April sometime Brett and I were in Target (love that place), and low and behold Nintendo brought out a limited addition Green (the exact neon green she loves) DS, and it came with a case and a cooking game. So we bought it and shoved it in our secret hiding place, and waited for her birthday. So the first gifts she opened were her DS, and the two other games we got her. She was so excited, and had it out of the box and playing it before the food arrived.

So here is the next part of the story. On Easter break Brinn decided that she wanted to save up money for an ipod nano. So she started working on filing and different things in my office, when she's been at work with me. She'd saved up $60.00, plus had about another $25.00 or so she'd saved up for. Then she started getting birthday money, and she'd figured out pretty quick that she'd save enough for her ipod. So here is the kicker, Brett had a really big side job, and decided that she'd done a good job saving, so we bought her the green (of course and yes she's spoiled) ipod nano. Brett for the last 2 weeks has been sneaking her CD's in the house and uploading them to her ipod, and then adding some digital copies of movies for it.

So since she was so sure she wasn't getting socks and undies for her birthday, guess what I ran out and got today. Yep socks and undies. So after we ate we asked Brinn is she wanted to open the rest of her presents, she said yes. We usually get her small things like CD's, toys, you know the usuall. But this was her reaction when she opended the first present on the top of the bag.

As Brinn would say "Oh no you didn't" Oh yes I did undies, she was really not happy but, I said look honey they are wedgie proof. .
So the next present was a couple of little cami bras and a tank top. She wasn't quite as upset as she was about the undies. I reminded her that we must be greatful for all things large, small and especially the everyday things we are blessed to have.

Then she opened her next gift which was a S.F. Giants hat girl style. Which she loved. Brinn loves hats, I think she got that from my brother. The hat I wrapped in a dog food box, she looked a bit confused when she saw that. So there was one gift left, I asked her if she liked the hat, "oh yeah mom it's cool, and thankfully it's not socks, I hate socks". This is true, she's never liked them not even as a baby. Brinn would wear flip flops in the rain, she only wears socks, because I make her wear them with her tennies, which she'll only wear if required.

So we pull out the next and last gift. She feels it it's soft and squishy. She says "it's clothes". Well she was half right, then she opened it and found yep socks. "Socks!", then the socks fell open. I had shoved the iPod between the two pairs of socks. She was super excited, sadly my camera froze at the moment, but this one is still a good shot. (see the socks on the table)

So here she is with her new hat, and her iPod, getting ready to watch Phineas and Ferb.

Totaly zoned in walking to the car watching her show.

So what you may ask did she buy with her money. Well she bought a case to protect her iPod and keep it from getting scratched, she bought the new Jonas Brother's CD, and of course what every non girly-girl, buys a second Castle Legos battleship. She still has money left and a couple of gift cards. So we'll see.

What blessed my heart tonight though was when she prayed. We always remind her that everything we have has been gifted to us by the Lord. So tonight she thanked God for her birthday presents, and that He made them in green for her, because He knew that she would like them that way, because you created me and you know everything about me. It was a special day for us, and for Brinn.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Love,

Carol

Happy Birthday Brett The Big 30!

Today is my darling husband Brett's birthday. Yes my friends my hubs turned 30 today!. Brinn made (with a bit of assistance from mom) dad his favorite cake. White cake,and white frosting.

She lovingly put the candles in the shape of the numbers 30. And then sang him happy birthday. Brett of course took video of this on his phone. So what did Brett want to do for his birthday. Well as some of you may know Brett has 5 loves in his life. God, His Wife, Brinn, Home Theater, and Star Wars. For those of you didn't know this, the Home Theater is a passion. In fact I have a whole scrapbook dedicated to his home theater as it developed in our life together.

When we moved into our home one of Brett's big things was he wanted a Theater room. So here's one of the pages that shows Brett's theater room in our house. The problem with this was it was small and we could never have more than 3 people over the house. So we rarely had anyone over to watch movies. From a wife's point of view it was ugly. Yes the walls are all padded and it's entirely black.

Recently as God has grown and change Brett's heart so has the way Brett spends his time, and the movies he watches has changed. So now sitting alone away watching a movie is something he doesn't enjoy much. So Sunday night he said "I was thinking about moving the Theater equipment into the living room, what do you think?" My first response was "we won't be putting any black foam on the walls will we?" "No hun" was Brett's answer. Actually I thought it'd be cool, and besides now I've got Brett into the idea of painting the walls in the room so it was a bonus.
So last night the project went underway. This is Brett's idea of a good time, resetting up his theater. He couldn't sleep he was so excited.

So as it stands our "big tv" is now moved out of the living romm and will find a new space in the old theater room. Which will become a tv/game room. (Brett and I don't watch much tv.) Last night by this time all of the theater equipment had taken over the kitchen, and Brett had the screen on the wall.

Today he took the day off work, and pulled 5 speaker cables under the house, mounted speakers, and was coming up with a way to hang his projector from the ceiling. (that was my idea thanks to all those decorating budget shows). We also had to put up a new light fixture in the living room too.

So as it stands right now my darling husband is exhausted, and is taking tomorrow off. The projector is hung, the system plays, and we sampled the first viewing of what else Star Wars Episode 4. I now have a 92" screen on my wall, and the new house projects are mounting. But my darling hubs is happy, and it's pretty cool. Of course I'll post some pictures after everything is done. And for those of you whose hubbies are saying wow honey can we do that, I'm sorry. And in answer to the other man questions, yes he has Blue Ray. Yes we could watch the Super Bowl or the World Series on it, and yes we can even hook up our Wii on it.

So Happy Birthday Honey. I love you!.

Carol

Here's what I've been doing in December

Well Happy New Year, are you ready for 2009? I didn't blog much in December, honestly it was busy, and well frankly I have to admit that I was spending way to much time on the computer. I have a love hate relationship with Facebook, it's so easy to get caught up in it. Especially all those little fun thingies you send back and forth. I do love Facebook though, it's fun to keep up with friends old and new on it.

I thought I'd share some highlights from the December activities in the Lueckfeld home, and a bit of our Christmas too. First up are pictures of us at Bethel Church in San Jose, our friends invited us to the Christmas performance the put on. It was impressive full Orchestra and all, what a talented group of people.

What would Christmas be with out kids and cookie making be? Brinn had two of her friends over to make Christmas Cookies and a sleep over. They had a blast mixing colors, and decorating the cookies.

The girls even made gingerbread shaped solider cookies. One of the girls brother was home on leave, and she made him a special cookie, with a special color mix of Army Green. Brinn made a cookie in honor of my father, the Grandpa she's hoping to meet in Heaven.

Brett is difficult to buy for, and the last couple years I've made him a gift. Last year I made him a scrapbook that represent his first 18 months of sobriety, and more importantly how God grew and changed him. For Father's day I altered a frame for him with the word Father and a scripture on it. For Christmas he asked me if I could make him something with the word TETELESTA which in the Greek mean's "It Is Finished" So the canvas below (sorry not a great picture) I made him using a print of the famous "Forgiven" painting, and 5 sections of scripture. John 19:28-30,(at the top) Jude 24-25 (at the bottom) Ephesians 1:7-8 (top left) Romans 6:6-7 (bottom left) and John 1:14 (right). It brought me such Joy to search the scriptures to find the ones that spoke to this picture and the amazing gift that was truly given to us on Christmas. Brett loves it and we'll hang it up this weekend next to his fathers day gift. Now the other pages are a sample of the calendar pages I made for gifts to my mom, grandma in law, mother in law and father in law. They are some of my favorite pictures through the year.

Okay, so now be kind, it's Christmas morning. Brett spoiled me and Brinn. I got jewelry, cd's and my new Tracy Jo Camera Bag with the matching camera strap. But my favorite is this statue I'm holding. It's Jesus and the Women at the Well. That section of the Gospel, is one where I've always heard Jesus speak to me. I love this, and the sweet carving of the lady in my new title picture was what Brinn picked out for me. She said it reminded her of me and I loved that when she sees a women arms stretched out looking to the heavens it makes her think of me. It sits in front of our wedding picture.

Brinn's gift to Daddy this year was a Polymer Clay Shark she made (with a bit of help from mom). Brett loves shark documentaries, and so Brinn was insistent that this is what she make. It really turned out good, and it has a smile, so it's a nice shark. Brett and I are the first to admit that we go way overboard at Christmas. We love giving our BooBear (as we call her) gifts, especially on Christmas. This year Brinn got lots of fun stuff, Cd's, puffels, and Lego sets. The big gift this year though was........ a Wii game.

As you can see she was excited. I've never been a big fan of video games, but I have to say that this one is fun. We also got the Wii fit board, very cool but a little unsettling. (I'll save that for another post. Even Nikita made out with her treats of extra thick beggins, which as you can see from the picture she is doing her one and only trick. And that's praise. Yep our dog praises!

And then she's thankful.

Well that's a brief highlight into December. We had a lot of other stuff going on too. I'll be back tomorrow to post with my bloggy sisters and the Yes to God Bible study.

Happy New Year to you all.

Love,

Carol

A few of my scrapbook pages

One of my blog buddies (Naomi) asked if I ever posted some of my scrapbook pages. I've done a couple on here but that's it. I've done a ton of pages, but I thought I'd post a few of my favorites. This first page is of you guessed it Third Day. They are my favorite band. There songs have ministered to me at every step of my journey with Jesus. They always seem to come out with a new song that fits my life or my question at the time. This was from the concert when they came to the Flint Center in Cupertino. I was so excited they were coming to our area, we don't get to many Christian Concerts here in the Silicon Valley. Then to top it off one of my other favorites opened for them the David Crowder Band


This is a journal I made for my husband, he wanted something special to write his thoughts on. The picture of Jesus is from a post card for the movie "The Passion" . This is one of my favorite pictures of Brinn, running on the beach. Just the joy in her face, I love how simple things make her smile. She has such a sweet spirit, she's one of those kids will just out of no where say hey mom I love you. No reason, no expectation of getting something, just came to her and she has to tell you.
This is our sweet Brinn and our sweet Nikita (Brinn's furry sister). It's hard to take a picture of Nakita, she has a strange fear of the camera. She's a very quirky dog.
Anyway, I'll post some more on another day. I do love to scrapbook, but haven't taken the time recently. I can feel the urge coming on. The 3 pages I believe are pagemaps one of my my favorite sketch sights. I use a lot of sketches and then tweek them to fit my need, but I'm terrible at keeping track of what products I used and where I got my sketch from if I used one.

Off to bed now. Hope everyone has a blessed day.

Carol

Marty Binn

This is just a scrapbook page I thought I'd share. It was part of a scrapbook I made for Brinn's teacher last year. I did a book with a page for each student and what they loved about having Mrs. R. as their teacher.

Mrs. R. gave all the kids nick names and I used those on each page. Brinn's is Marty Binn, Marty has something to do with all the different names of Root Beer, Brinn loves Root Beer, and Binn, because when Brinn writes to fast she often forgets the R in her name.

I love this picture of her, just shows her sweet funny personality. Oh and the monkey well that's Millie, Brinn has a collection of monkeys this one has a blue brother name Maxie, and she got Millie on the day the picture was taken.

Learning to look past the outside.

This is one of my many scrapbook pages. I love to scrapbook, something about brings me close to God. I get to celebrate in the gifts he's given me, and the creativity he's given me.

So why this page, besides the fact that it's my most recent. Well because there was a time when I would have never shown pictures of myself to anyone that weren't let say "excellent". Let alone post it on the web. I had a way I wanted to be preceived, and goofy pictures wasn't one of them.

One of the things that God has shown me is that my beauty is not skin deep. Don't mistake me I'm still pretty hard on myself, I guess I'm a slow learner. But when I look at these pictures I can now see joy. Joy in my face from just being silly with my daughter, joy in my daughter's face because I choose to be silly with her. There was a time when I would have looked and said "oh hardly any make up, I can see a double chin" well you get the picture. So I'm learning.