G&G's last day....we miss them...

We had a pretty good last day with Grandma and Grandpa. We ended up taking them to the lake.

First up Ava and Amanda ended up wearing the same outfit this morning. Matchy Matchy. So cute. They even have the same Barbie.
Ava is enjoying the lake. It was pretty cold but both girls got in all the way. I am pretty sure temperature does not affect kids because I put my little toe in and that was enough for me!
Grandma and Grandpa opted to stay in the shade and play with Brie.
Amanda learned how to build a sand castle.
The girl loved the water for sure!
Grandpa got sleepy so he tried to take a snooze with Brie.
Ava really enjoyed the sand. I can't imagine how that was comfortable.
After all that tough playing Brie was worn out. She fell fast asleep on Grandma.
After the lake Justin showed Grandma and Grandpa around the Preston area in Cary. There is a super nice golf course there and Grandpa happens to be an avid golfer. Yes, we are trying to get them to move out here as well.

Amanda's Birthday Party

Amanda is like my good friend Bonnie K. Her birthday seems to last all month long :) Yesterday we celebrated Amanda's Birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Lukie. They took us out to dinner at Pizza Inn. Pretty good pizza by the way. Then we came home and opened a few presents. Amanda really didn't get into opening gifts right away. Ava had to show her how it was done.

Amanda opened her Barbie from Aunt Heather and was pretty excited about it.
This is one of two gifts she actually opened without Ava's assistance. It was a game called Elefun from Grandma Linda. You'll see that in action a little later on in this post...
This was Amanda's big present for her birthday. I wonder what it is....
It's a scooter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I found this at a garage sale for $5. Good deal.
Here is the Elefun game in action. Little butterflys fly out out the elephants trunk and you catch them with the net. Grandpa was a cheater and was leaning the trunk toward him so he could catch all the butterflys. You gotta watch out for that guy :)
Here is Amanda's cake. Amanda really wasn't sure about the candles at all. Ava showed her how to blow them out. It was pretty good cake actually.

Grandma and Grandpa Lukie are here!

They arrived yesterday afternoon and we have been having fun ever since. The entire week leading up to yesterday Ava and Amanda were asking when Grandma was getting here. They have done nothing but sit on Grandma and play with her, and most of all wear her out :) For some reason they are super attached to Grandma. I think Grandpa is jealous. He's going to have to work hard to get them to like him better.

Grandpa and Justin have been golfing on the Wii quite a bit. Grandpa rocks at golf! I suppose it helps that he golfs in real life...alot.

Check out that form!

Justin just had a nice swing.
This was the first time Grandma and Grandpa have seen Brie.

Today we are going to celebrate Amanda's birthday so that should be pretty fun. The presents are all ready to go!

Night Terrors

Last night we had our first experience with night terrors. I never want to experience those ever again. Ava would just wake up screaming and thrashing. She would scream No No No over and over again. She would also say things like "stop looking at me", then point to Justin's chin. This was all with her eyes wide open but she was totally asleep. The other weird thing is that she kept asking for Grandma.

Justin read up on why this happens, it is because they didn't get enough sleep. It makes sense because we were out late the other night, she didn't sleep in at all the next morning, then at nap time she only slept for an hour. Last night she was VERY cranky before she was to sleep too. I think today we are going to make her take a nap then put her to bed early. We are both pretty exhausted from last night.

Rainy Days

What do you do on a rainy day? We play!! A couple weeks ago I bought the girls some umbrellas. then happened to be on sale and they were Dora, perfect. Since I bought them it really hasn't rained at all. As soon as Ava sees dark clouds she gets super excited and asked if she gets to use her umbrella, she never gets to. Until today! It rained for a good portion of the day so I let the girls play outside.


After they got tired of playing in the rain we got a bunch of boxes from the garage and made cars. Ava's actually was a minivan because her box was so big. I also made a gas station so they could fill their cars tanks. Here is Ava filling up her minivan.
Now Amanda's car needs some gas.
Her car is full so she is returning the pump. Yes, there were slits in the cars and the pump so they could actually insert the "nozzle" into their cars and back into the pump. Very realistic :)
After a while they started having car trouble so I made them some wrenches to fix their cars. Amanda is very into it.
As soon as their cars were fixed they had to drive to the airport to pick up Grandma Liz, followed by Grandma and Grandpa Lukie. Amanda is pointing out Grandma Liz in the airport terminal.
They have picked everyone up and Ava, being the helpful girl that she is, loaded up the suitcases into the trunk of her car.
Here's Ava driving off into the sunset with a trunk full of suitcases.
Here is Amanda in her sports car.
I love boxes. Endless possibilities.

Totally random...

I was putting in Ava's Strawberry Shortcake DVD and got a whiff of something sweet. The DVD and case actually smell like strawberries!! We have watched this movie quite a few times and this is the first I have noticed it. How cool is that :)

Ava's preschool End of the Month Program

Every month Ava's preschool class doe s a little show for the parents so we can see what they are learning. This was the first one today and oh my gosh was it cute. While we were waiting to go inside their class we heard them practicing and they were very loud!!! Justin said we should look through the window and watch because you know they aren't going be be like that when we all come in. He was right, they all got shy. It was still really adorable.

The lady in the background of this picture is Ava's teacher, Ms. Sandra. She is such a sweet lady and always tells me how good and mature Ava is. I didn't get a very good picture of the entire class because the little girl on the left was sitting really far forward in her seat so I could see Ava. I got an entire class shot but you couldn't see the most important student, my daughter :)

Here the class is singing Frere Jacque. I panned over so you can see the whole class. The little girl in the red was really into it. She was the loudest one.


This song is a french one about swimming like fish, clapping your hands and turning like something but I am not sure what. By now Ava was starting to get into the show.


Here they are showing off their Spanish skills. This is their hello good day song. I think you can actually hear Ava in this one. Maybe she'll turn out to be Mexican like her mom :)


The last song they did was the goodbye song in Spanish. I was so proud because my kid was the only one singing!! Granted she was pretty quiet but whatever, she was participating. I also think by now they were losing interest in the whole thing and were ready to go. I guess that's a three year old's attention span though.


There were other songs but these were the cutest and the best shots of Ava. I can' wait for the next End of the Month Program. Hopefully the kids will be a little more into it.

Gina Update

I just heard from Dr. Tudor about Gina. She said she thinks Gina does not have a meniscus tear at all. Nothing felt loose to her at all. She said she really put Gina to the test. She was squeezing, poking and prodding pretty hard and she didn't get any kind of reaction from Gina. As a matter of fact after putting Gina through some major range of motion stuff she actually was walking better than when she started. If it was a meniscus tear Gina would have been way worse off than when she started. She also said the popping and cracking that I heard could have just been her knee cap moving against cartilage. Who knows. My dog has officially baffled Dr.Tudor.

So now what we will do is just really keep watch on her and not let her run and race up the hill to go to the bathroom and give her an anti-inflammatory for the next two weeks. I am going to also ask the vet tech to show me how to get her leg through the range of motion correctly. Maybe the stretching will help.

Thanks God we didn't have to have yet another surgery.

6:00 AM

I have managed to do it again. My third child wakes up at 6:00 am on the nose. No matter what time she decides to eat in the middle of the night she still wakes at 6. I try to keep her awake later but she just gets crabby and we have a bad night. I really hope it doesn't take her two years to figure out how to not get up until 7.

Note to anyone out there with babies, don't ask me for advice on how to get your kid to sleep because I am sure if you do what I do your kid will be up at the butt crack of dawn.

Henrypalooza!

I just wanted to let all of you know about a couple events coming up that are going to be rockin'. Our good friends Stephen and CC are getting ready to bring home their son Henry from China. It is happening much quicker than they anticipated! The events are to support them and help them bring their son home.

It all starts this Saturday. Please check it out!! www.henrypalooza.com

Look what Wii got!!

I am SO thrilled! Today we became the proud owners of a Wii. I never thought in my entire life I would ever own a video game system but here I am with one now. And to all my brothers who probably don't read this, I now am cool and can hang with you because I have a Wii. Maybe I'm not adopted afterall. I can't wait to play and get a few more games as well. Tonight we were busy making our Mii's and opening up new levels to play. Thanks Mom and Dad you guys totally rock!!!!

Oh and I am so proud I set the whole thing up by myself and didn't screw it up. Now thats amazing!

The Gina Saga Continues

Gina has been limping alot recently and I also noticed a popping, cracking noise when I bend her leg. I was pretty sure that popping and cracking was not normal so I called the vet. From her best guess Gina has torn her meniscus. The chances of this happening are so slim but with the way Gina's situation has been all along it doesn't surprise me that this is happening as well. To recap a little Gina had surgery to repair one of the ligaments in her knee and repair the damage done to her meniscus. She should have been fine after this surgery but the plate that was put in was bugging her and had to be taken out. In humans they always take the plates out but dogs usually don't care.

After the plate was taken out Gina was totally perfect but then we took her on her first couple walks and the limp came back. I wasn't too concerned because she did just get cut open. It has since gotten worse and that is what led to the phone call to the vet.

We are going to bring Gina in on Wednesday and hopefully get some answers as to what to do next. I told the vet we should just cut her leg off but she said with your luck right now Gina would probably tear something in the other leg. You know what, she is probably right. I love dogs but when is this going to let up already?!?

On a funnier note, we had some friends over last night and we got talking about diapers. Justin asked me if I noticed anything funny about Amandas diaper that morning. I said not becuase I didn't take her diaper off, she did. Apparently, my cheapskate, um I mean frugal, husband used a postal service sticker to hold Amanda's diaper on. I guess one of the little velcro tabs were missing so he "fixed"it. I SOOO wish I took her diaper off and got a picture of that. How white trash do we need to be, really.

I think we shop at Target too much

Tonight we were at the Gatlin's house for dinner. Let me just say the Wii outdoor eco challege game is SO much fun! I totally need a Wii for my birthday.

Anyway, as we were driving back Amanda yells, "There's Target mommy!" I looked over to my right and sure enough, on a very tall part of North Hills Mall was a Target logo. Talk about great branding...

She's a talker

Brie is quite talkative. I assume it's her way of competing with the noise in the house. She does talk a lot and its pretty cute. One of these videos is her clam happy voice and the other is her fun hyper about to get really mad voice. I'll let you guess which is which.

Oh, and the grinding noise you hear constantly in the background is Lola chewing on a bone. Gina is the dog you see in the mirror.

And mad props to my cousin Beth for the O-Ball idea. You'll see a purpely blue green ball that Brie is chewing on. Best little ball ever. She loves it.

Yikes! Stripes!

Does anyone remember Fruit Stripe gum?

Uh Oh!

I think its about time for some new drip bowls for our stove. I was cooking potatos and it caught fire!!!! And this was the second time. I figured the first time it all burned away but I guess not. So tomorrow we will be making a trip to Lowes. At least my stove will look all new and fancy again :)

What a good birthday it was...

We ended up having a really good time this evening with Amanda. We took her to IHOP for dinner. She ate her fill of pancakes then got a ice cream sundae. The staff sang happy birthday to her, I don't think she knew what to think. It was really cute. She didn't want to share her ice cream either. After dinner we headed to the park. There was a softball game going on so we sat and watched that for a bit. Both girls though tit was pretty cool. Personally, I can't stand baseball/softball and I really hope they find a different sport to play. Anyway, after watching the game for a while we ran around the parkk and got dirty.

We are now home and all the girls are showered and Justin is reading (actually I think I hear him singing) them a story. They will all be sleeping very shortly. What a good day though.

Happy 2nd Birthday Amanda!!

Two years ago today Amanda was born to us and we love her even more today. I can't believe she is already two! Time certainly does fly by. We aren't doing much to celebrate today. We are waiting until Justin's dad and step-mom come in to town to have a little party for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!

Where's Justin?

That's a good question. I've had a few questions about what's going on with me and Lukas Coaching and I have to say, quite a bit. It's really been impacting our family in a great way.

We finished our first Past Due Money & Life Boot Camp last week in a church with about 70 people attending. The fact that we don't advertise it on our website apparently means nothing. I'm talking with five churches right now that are interested in us bringing it to their community and I'm thrilled to help!

The town of Cary, NC is also opening the program (3-programs back-to-back) to their residents in the spring.

This Saturday's Past Due Radio Show feature our nationwide scholarship coach, Jill Howell. Last year, Jill's average high school senior was awarded over $63,000 in scholarship money! Incredible; you won't want to miss it.

Last night I was able to meet with some of the brightest minds in Raleigh including my friend Ryan Allis. Ryan created iContact and grew it to a $1,000,000 company by the time he was 21 years old. Check out Ryan's book. Ryan will be a guest on Past Due October 4th to talk about social entrepreneurship.

Yes, we're growing. I need about 4 times the office space right now and I've been looking for a few weeks now. I'm spoiled being so close to home and I want to stay that way ideally. Lunch is much better with family. Two more coaches will be on staff with me full time by the end of the year. This is one of those goals that Christine and I planned out last October and said would be nice to happen in 5 years from now.

The power of goals is amazing. If you don't have written goals, use this free goal planning worksheet every year. It's amazing!

My wife is amazing, what can I say? She is by far the biggest supporter in my life and enables me to do everything I do. A lot of people owe their ability to get out of debt directly to Christine for supporting me in my passion.

My Financial Coaches have been doing the majority of work helping people realize their dream of becoming debt-free. While I still do some of that coaching, I am now focusing mainly on helping people find work they love. Sometimes that involves effective job searches and sometimes it involves starting a business. It always begins with first taking a look inside to find out how God has made you.

I am truly excited and blessed to be surrounded by such great people to help make my dreams a reality.

A rainy day

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon than to have a photo shoot. Amanda as usual was not all that cooperative but Ava and Brie did great. These two pictures are my favorite. the bottom one is actually my desktop wallpaper.

A visit from Grandma

My Grandma Liz came for a short visit yesterday on her way down to Florida. The girls just loved having her out here. I have a feeling they put grandma through the ringer. She probably went to her hotel room and crashed!!


Grandma brought some fun stuff for the girls. Here she is trying to figure out the Barbie clothes.

Grandma was getting some time in with Brie.

The girls thought grandma was very fun to play with. I had to keep reminding them to be careful. Grandma is not daddy and we can't be really rough.

Now it's Amanda's turn for some fun.

Here is Amanda trying to figure her Barbie clothes out. I love how concentrated she looks in this picture.

Later on in the evening we went out to dinner and brought Uncle Steve along with us. It was an awesome visit and much to short but we were glad to have the time we did.

Brie vs. Chloe

My sister-in-law, Heather, had a great idea the other day. We both have the same baby play gyms, so she suggested we take a picture of our kids in the same position on the gym to compare. Chloe is about 3 weeks older than Brie. I think Brie has some catching up to do :)

My first attempt at Enchiladas Verdes

We invited our friends Lori and Karel over for dinner tonight. I wanted to try my hand at some of the Mexican cooking I learned and they volunteered to be my guinea pigs. They are very brave. About 30 minutes before they arrived I remembered that Karel spent a year in Mexico. Uh oh. Now I really have some standards to live up to.

I must say dinner turned out better than I expected. I was a little worried because my first round of salsa sucked, then I was cooking the rice this afternoon the stove started really smoking, I apparently dropped something down by the burner and that caught fire and to top it all off in the middle of making the rice Amanda had to go potty so some if it burnt. Oy!

You may be wondering what Karel thought now that you have heard the back story. He said he felt like he was in Mexico! Although, he does happen to be a really nice guy and he quite possibly said that just to make me feel better. I'll just pretend he was telling the truth. Really though, I thought it tasted pretty yummy. I can't wait to try again!


Ava and Caleb we loving Lola..alot... She is such a good dog

Here is Amanda just being cute.

My husband is a celebrity

For real! The other day Justin was at a networking thing, and as he was sitting down the gentleman he was sitting next to introduced himself. When he was finished Justin did the same and when the gentleman heard Justin's name he about fell out of his seat. He said, "You're Justin Lukasavige?!?! I listen to your radio show all the time!" Love it!

I did it

So this morning I cut Amanda some bangs. I think it looks pretty cute. I am not sure which I liked better though...

Amanda with bangs?

I really enjoy change. Ever since I gave Ava bangs I have thought I should do the same for Amanda. Her hair is constantly in her face and she won't keep a pony tail or a clip in there. So what do you, my faithful readers, think? To cut or not to cut?