May Update

Hello Family and Friends, just a quick update here while I am on my lunch break.


Denise and I seem to have survived turning another year older, Denise on April 3 and myself on May 2.  Denise got to cash in her birthday present, a night stay in downtown Minneapolis and tickets to see Sugarland.  She absolutely loved it and I enjoyed it also.  Even though it was country, it was a good show.

The other major event that has happened is that Lucas had successful removal of his duplicate left thumb last Friday.  He will be in the cast you see below for one month, and then we will know for sure how it all went.  But the doctor felt very confident.

And now for some pictures.

 Action from the Bull Riding event we took in up in Bemidji.  We had great seats and Libby loved it and talked about it for weeks!

Lucas' duplicate thumb before surgery 

What we now see, and will see for the next month.

Libby and Lucas enjoying the swing set.  Lucas tends to fall asleep!  May have to try this at 3:00 AM sometime.

 Libby loves pushing Lucas in the swing!

And Lucas loves having Libby do the pushing!

Like I said, just a quick update!  Until next time.

Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas

More Pictures

Here are some of the pictures from our photo shoot with Impressions By Sarah last month.  Lucas was six months old and Libby was two and a half.  These are just 12 of the 47 we ended up with.



Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas

WOW, where does the time go?

Hello friends and family! I can't believe it has been a month since our last post and that was for Lucas' birthday......

Here things are moving right along, but you think I can remember much of what we have done? We did make it up to Bemidji on Denise's birthday weekend to watch some bull riding at the new events center up there. We went with our season hockey ticket group and had sweet seats: Row 7 right off the chutes. We even had some clay fly up into us from one of the bulls when he was "asserting his authority" in the arena. There were 50 rides that night (40 in the qualifying round and then 10 in the finals) and we only saw three full rides (2 in the qualifying and 1 in the finals). But, do you really go to bull riding for the rides or for the "wrecks"? Nothing major on Saturday night when we were there, but we did hear that one rider snapped his arm on Friday night. Libby absolutely loved it and got to go pet a horse (she wouldn't ride it) and like the clowns. We would definitely go again.

Outside of that, we have just been busy with stuff around the house. We are having a garage sale the weekend of fishing opener (it is a huge weekend for garage sales in the Alexandria area), so we have been busy getting ready for that. If you know anyone that needs baby boy clothes, toddler girl clothes, or baby things, we have them! May 14th at 540 West Latoka Drive in Alexandria (Denise's parents shed).

Lucas will be a busy boy here the next few weeks. On Monday, he will get tubes in his ears as he has had nine ear infections over the seven months he has been around. Hopefully this will take care of the situation and he will get to sleeping through the night.

Then on May 13, he will have his duplicate left thumb removed at Childrens in St. Paul. He will then be in a cast for one month to allow everything to heal and then we will be back at Childrens on June 10th for a follow up and hopefully cast removal. Just as he is learning to crawl, he will be in a full arm cast up to his shoulder. They have to go above the elbow in order for the cast to stay on. If they don't, casts tend to slide off baby's arms due to the shape of their arms.

On May 7th, Denise will be cashing in her birthday present as we will be spending the evening in downtown Minneapolis and going to the Sugarland Concert at the Target Center. She is pretty excited!

Libby is enjoying daycare and is about ready to be moved up to the pre school room from the toddler room. This is suppose to happen on April 25th, so she is excited to be moving up to the "big girl" room. She will be in the same room as one of her friends that is a couple of months older than her, but they were at the old daycare together and have been at the YMCA together since it opened.

Work continues to go well for Denise and myself. Denise has been busy with maintenance this past week and this upcoming week, so that means some night work for her. My job continues to be busy as the number of members we have enrolled seems to be holding steady. I have become more involved on the pharmacy side of things as we have gone through a pharmacist change, so as he gets his feet wet with PrimeWest policy, I get to pick up some of the slack. It isn't bad at all and makes the days go by fast.

That is about all I can think of for now, so onto the pictures. I know that is what you come here for anyways!

Libby likes to take daddy's Sports Illustrated and look at the sports pictures, especially hockey.  Here she grabbed the whole pile off the night stand and brought them out into the living room.  Magazine #2 in the pile was the Swimsuit Issue.  I don't think she made it into that one.

With the new camera we got for Christmas, Denise and I have been having fun experimenting with the settings and taking pictures of the kids.  Here is one of Lucas.

And another of Lucas

Libby showing off the purse and bracelet that Grandma Rosemary sent her from Texas.

Libby and her bear before bed one night.  She doesn't go many places without him.

Lucas hamming it up for the camera.

It sure was good, but now your telling me it is all gone?

Hmmmm, what can I ask for next?

Hey Bear, Daddy sure likes to use this, I wonder what it does?

NO!  You can't have it back.  I am watching Mickey right now.

Libby and Lucas one night.

Hmmmm?????

One night Libby was being awfully quiet.  Well, she was on the other side of the kitchen island from the living room and this is what we saw........

...and without Libby in the pictures.  She was feeding her "daycare kids".

Until next time!!!!
Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas

Happy St Patrick's Day from Libby and Lucas!

Happy Half Birthday

Just a quick note to say "Happy Half Birthday" to Lucas! Six months ago he arrived in our lives!

Love Ya Little Buddy!
Mom, Dad and Sister

Just found out that Lucas's surgery at Gillette Childrens has been postponed from Friday May 6 to Friday May 13. I'm trying not to be superstitious but surgery on Friday the 13th....Really?

A Snowy President's Day Update

Happy President's Day! So much for a nice relaxing day off from work as the winter storm that hit the Twin Cities managed to drop somewhere between 5 and 10 inches on us in Garfield. It is really hard to tell as we had some pretty good drifting going on. But the driveway is clean down to the cement again and the sidewalks and decks are cleaned off.

We haven't really done a whole lot since the last update. We did manage to make it down to Stacy and Dave's one weekend to take in the Minneapolis RV Show. We are still RV-less, but did see a couple we liked. Maybe next year we will enter the world of RVing.

Lucas had a doctor's appointment today, another ear infection, so it is more antibiotics. But we did find out he weighs a hair over 20 pounds at five months old.

Here are some pictures for you. The car ones are from last Thursday. As you can see, the driveway is clear of snow and ice due to the 40s, the sun and the wind we had for one week.

And here are some pictures from the other night. We had Lucas in his exer-walker (even though his feet don't touch the ground) and Libby decided to help him learn the activities on it.

They then proceeded to watch Barney together. Libby is a Barney nut, unfortunately.

So, that is the quick update from here. I hope you all have a great week and until next time!!!!

Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas

"Puttin' on the Foil, Coach"

I know I did an update this past weekend, but this was just too good to pass up. All I could think of was the above quote from "Slapshot", even though I know Libby was not "puttin' on the foil".

When Libby and I got home today, we decided to play "hockey". The last time we were up in Bemidji for hockey, they handed out little hockey sticks to everyone when they left the game. So we broke out the sticks and a Nerf ball. I had to feed Lucas first, so this is what we saw next.
Libby had walked over to the drawer and got out the masking tape and proceeded to tape her hockey stick.

She started down on blade of the stick and ran tape from the toe to the heel and up the shaft.

Here she is with her completed tape job.

Now, where did she get the idea? I swear I did not or have not talked to/shown her how to do this. The only thing we can think of is the last time we were up in Bemidji we ate at the Corner Bar (yes, we had their cheese burgers, mmmmmmmmmmmm). Well, the had a whole bunch of autographed, used hockey sticks on the walls and ceiling, and we had to go look at them all. And of course they had tape on them, and she noticed that.

That is the only way we can think of that she came up with this. Even though we have been to a bunch of hockey games with her, we have never really been close enough for her to see the tape on the sticks. Or at least she hasn't told us about it.

And of course I had to throw up a picture Lucas. This is after he had his rice cereal and a whole jar of Stage 2 Bananas. Yes, a whole jar after having cereal.

And here is Libby yesterday morning helping Lucas color!

Enjoy the cold this week! Just remember, it is going to warm up this weekend!!!

Until next time!

Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas

February Picture Update

Happy February 2011 Everyone! Not a whole lot going on here outside of riding out wave after wave of snowfall. I am not sure how much we have gotten this season, but it is the most we have had in the five years I have been here. And we still have February, March and April to go!

Anyway, here are the pictures that I know you all love.
Libby's tired eyes one night. She is now 29 months old and a lot of fun.

Here she is putting one of Lucas' bibs on one of her bears. She has really developed her imagination here lately and we hear a lot of comments out of her about her running her "daycare" when she is playing.

Lucas is 18 weeks now and we got the go ahead at his four month appointment to start with cereal. Here is the first night. He wasn't quite sure what to think.

He has now moved up to green beans and applesauce along with the rice cereal.

By the way, his four month checkup stats: 17 lbs, 11.5 oz. and 25 inches.

Here is a picture of our table on the back deck. That is a good three feet of snow on top of it and the warm weather around Christmas and New Years melted a lot of what was already on there.

Libby and Daddy went outside to play today. Libby insisted on having to go out to the slide in the back yard. So, Daddy had to carry her through a snow drift that came up to between his waist and arm pits. Libby liked it, Daddy got a little tired.

After using the slide a few time, we made our way back to the garage and grabbed the sled. We went up and down the street and even found a hill of snow at the end of our cul-de-sac and Libby got to do her first "hill sledding". She thought that was cool and wanted to go faster. The hill of snow was only around 8 feet high.

That is about all from here. I hope all are enjoying the winter as much as we are! :) Of course summer can't be too far away as we are attending a RV show next weekend!

Until next time!

Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas