Happy, Happy, Birthday Babies!

Hulse and Olivia,
One year ago today you came into the world. I honestly cannot believe that you are one! Your dad I and went to the doctor for a normal check up that afternoon and 8 or 9 hours later you made your grand entrance. Of course, you came when you were ready and not as we had planned, and you picked the middle of an ice storm to do it. From that moment on, life as we knew it has never been the same. This year has been much different than I imagined your first year would be. It has been easier in some ways, harder in others, frustrating at times, and a complete joy at others. There are many days where I think to myself that I have no idea what I'm doing and other times where I seem to have it all under control. Above all we love being your parents. I am amazed everyday at how you change and grow and absolutely enchant us with your personalities. You are gifts from God, and we are thankful each day for the privilege we have in being your mommy and daddy. We look forward to the next year of your life and all of the things it will bring. Thanks for being the best kids ever!

Hulse man,
At one year old you are a funny and smart little guy. You love to play and push all your toys around the room. You like to explore in cabinets and drawers, and it only takes a minute for your to empty them out. You're not quite walking yet, but you are very close. You love to eat and are eating real food and drinking whole milk with no problem. You especially love to eat fruit of all kinds and gobble it up. You have the funniest belly laugh when you get tickled. You are quite the talker and can say all kinds of words (ball, book, mama, dada, papaw, uh oh, bye bye). You are a sweet little guy and are pretty laid back for the most part. Your favorite "toys" right now are the ball(oons) that we had at your party. You've got three teeth on the bottom and one poked through the top a couple weeks back.

Livi girl,
You are a total mess. You also love to play and get into all kinds of stuff, and you get really excited with yourself and love to clap. You have just started walking and are getting more surefooted each day, already making lots of progress since you started last Monday. Your favorite toy is anything that you can convert into a push toy and motor around. You're also a good eater and on big kid food and milk as well. You love to talk as well but seem to speak in your own Livi language - although you do say mama, dada, and bye bye. You don't have any problem with people you don't know and seem to be very outgoing. You're always on the go and have something to do. You got your first two teeth in August but didn't add another until several weeks back when 4 came in all at once on the top.

Good and Bad

We'll start with the bad. It all started Friday night. We took the kids to their first basketball game to see their cousin Tanner play against Sylvan Hills.

Let's pause here and give some backstory. The last time we went to Sylvan Hills it was to hang out with Tanner while he watched his high school play football. During that game, someone stole Jennifer's purse out of the car. Good times.

Sylvan Hills continued its string of good fortune as just minutes into the game Hulse got sick - a lot. So, we left, and he appeared to immediately feel better.

On Monday, Jennifer was off for MLK day. Unfortunately, she woke up sick in the middle of the night. At 3:30, Trey actually had to be driven home from work because he couldn't sick up straight without feeling nauseated. And then, it hit Olivia last night. She's usually a great sleeper, but at about 10:30, we couldn't get her to stop crying - really crying. Jump ahead to this morning when she appeared to be feeling fine. Nope. She waited until she was completely dressed and we were about 10 minutes from heading out the door.

Enough bad news. The good news is that by noon or so everyone appeared to be on the road to recovery. More good news is that Olivia took advantage of everyone's day at home to start walking just one week before her birthday. Check out the video -


It's becoming more and more apparent how different the kids are. Olivia's got the walking skills. Hulse has the talking and entertaining skills. Hulse can say dad, mom, ball (bahh), book (boouh), and this week he added pappaw (papawwwww). Back before Christmas he actually started this awesome fake sneeze thing. Because he has stage fright, we never got a good version of it on tape, but we were actually able to get this -

UPDATE: Livi got sent home from daycare Tuesday morning. Guess we weren't as recovered as we thought.

R.I.P. Oreo

We don't know exactly when our first child, a cat named Oreo, was born, but this morning at around 1:45 am, he died at the emergency clinic in Maumelle. A poor, untrained diagnosis on my part put any chance for his recovery behind the 8-ball. By the time I finally took him to the clinic tonight around 10:15, it was really too late.

I'm going to miss you Big O (Olivia is Little O). You were my first ever pet. I know I might have complained because you often took up a lot of my side of the bed, but I know that already tonight I was missing you there with me.

Here's the oldest picture I could find from back around Christmas 2005:


And here's one from February 3, 2007, looking as handsome as ever:


Big and Little O


During the above photo shoot on Nov. 15, 2009, you got in on the action:



And finally one of your favorite pastime:


You hated car rides, loved meeting us at the door after work for your treats and did extremely well with your little brother and sister considering how they sometimes treated you. I'll miss you buddy. I'm sorry I didn't get you there sooner.

- Your dad