WOW! Summer is half over!

Hello Family and Friends! It has been a busy couple of months since the last update, so here we go!

We are getting ready to start an addition onto our house. With the need for Lucas to move out of our bedroom, we decided to do a two bedroom addition on the east side (right in the picture below) of our house. It is going to be an 18x20 addition with one of the bedrooms being about 10x15 and the other being about 10x12. There will be a hallway coming off our current kitchen/family room area. They were to break ground this past Friday, but we got between 5 and 7 inches of rain in five hours. Our rain gauge quit measuring at 4 inches and it rained hard for at least another hour after that.

Our contractor has removed the siding from the east side of the house and has measured for the trusses. The addition will be flush with the front of the house and go back 18 feet, or to just in front of the window in the picture.

Last weekend, July 8-10th, we headed to the Cities. Lucas had a follow up appointment for his thumb and everything is going outstandingly. They will want to see him in a year again. He will not have movement of his top joint, but he can still use it like a lever. He has been using it a lot and has adjusted well. But then again, he is young enough and doesn't know any differently.

Anyway, on Saturday, our family and my sister Stacy, her husband Dave and their twin daughters Abby and Maddy made the trip out to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen. Here is a picture from up on the hill looking out towards the lake across the road.

For those of you that haven't been to the Arboretum and you like plants and landscaping, this is a must see. They have all the different plants broken out by type and their are wide paved trail and little foot paths all over the place. Denise and I would like to do it again, on a cooler day and without Libby and Lucas as the stroller really limited where we could go. Below is one of the foot paths.

Here is Libby and Daddy at one of the resting areas.

And Troy and Denise. Libby didn't want to get completely out of the picture.

Libby, Maddy and Abby looking at all the monies in one of the many ponds and fountains.

Libby loved the waterfall in this picture.

So much so that she had to point it out to all of us!

Libby in the "birds nest" at the entrance of the Arboretum.

Maddy, Libby and Abby in the "birds nest".

The weekend of June 26th, Denise's mom, Rosemary, had all of her brothers and sisters in town for a gathering. On Sunday, we made a trek out to Carlos Creek Winery with them and Libby and I had to have our picture taken in wine cask out front.

On Saturday night, Rosemary and the clan made the trip out to our place for some food and bonfire with Smores.

Libby anxiously awaiting the bonfire to start so she can have her Smores.

The fire pit is about ready to go, much to Libby's liking!

We can fit 18 people on our deck. Just no more than one person try to move at once!

Memorial Day weekend, we made the trip to Rugby, ND, for a Danielson (Denise's maiden name) Family Reunion. It was set up to coincide with Beulah's (Denise's grandma) 90th Birthday. Unfortunately, Beulah was in the hospital in Fargo that weekend, so we made a stop to see her on our way to Rugby. Below, you have Beulah, Curtis (Denise's Dad), Denise, Libby and Lucas.

Here are Libby and Lucas with Great Grandma Beulah. Beulah really enjoyed seeing them and they liked sitting on the bed.

And some random pictures here. Here is Libby helping Lucas eat his Puffs one night!

Libby watching TV (probably Barney) and Lucas tagging along!

So, what does the rest of the summer have in store for us. Well, we have our addition project that hopefully will only take about a month. Our contractor, who also is our next door neighbor, thinks he can pound it out pretty quickly as there is nothing complicated about it. Outside of that, we think we have done most of our running around, so hopefully we can sit back and enjoy the days and nights. Once fall rolls around, we will be busy again with two weddings, a cruise and hockey starting back up. I think we figured it out and between October 1 and December 31, we have three weekends open right now! YIKES!

Well, everyone else enjoy the summer and we will try to keep things a little more updated for those of you that don't have Facebook.

Troy, Denise, Libby and Lucas

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