You say it's your birthday!

Happy Birthday, Alyssa! The big 3!

Three years ago, Alyssa came home on the outside of Mommy for the first time. When our two became three. When our DINK became a DIOnK. I gotta trademark that! Dibs! No wait. I thought the acronym was going to spell d-o-i-n-k. Idiot. So much has changed since that day; I can't write them all down, but I'll at least try to ...

The Hoy House relocated (back) to Houston ... Cypress specifically. I took a job with my old group at Hewlett-Packard. I became (at times overly) involved with the Knights of Columbus. Katie is giving back to the RCIA program at church ... not to mention Sustainable Living Houston and our MUD and HOA. Padme joined our family. Oh, and somewhere in there, Jackson joined our family; it's the youngest Hoy who redirected Aly's birthday.

As often happens to every parent, the best laid plans change in an instant because of anything and everything. The plan for Alyssa's birthday was to celebrate with Granddad and Granny Kendall and Grandpa and Grandma Denk with dinner of breakfast casserole and Mickey Mouse waffles (one of Alyssa's favorite meals is breakfast for dinner). Late last night, Jackson came down with the latest of a long line of colds. This one with a fever and runny nose combined with swelling around his left eye; this put the kibosh on the subdued birthday plans for Alyssa.

Grandparents Denk to the rescue! Grandma kidnapped Alyssa after a brief cake celebration at home. Grandpa and Grandma took Alyssa to a neighborhood Frosty Fest in Katy followed by a holiday open house. Our little three-year-old had a great time and shows no signs of her brother's illness. Yay!

Katie and I had a relaxed afternoon and evening with Jackson, Christmas cookies, and football. Jackson's fever broke in the early afternoon and he started to look and act more like himself ... even more so than normal since big sister wasn't around. Lots of Chex mix, Oreo truffles, chocolate bark, buckeyes ... made, not eaten (yet). It's not very often that we're around on a Sunday afternoon to catch a bit of the NFL, but got to see the Texans beat the Flaming Thumbtacks from Tennesse this afternoon.

So while it didn't go as planned, Alyssa's third birthday was a rousing success. Here's hoping that Jackson's second birthday follows the itinerary a bit better.

... and away we go!

Howdy! My name is Darren Hoy, and while I've had an email address since 1994, and websites since 1995, this is my first blog.

You can blame this entire blog on a good friend of mine from high school, Annemarie. I got hooked on reading her blog, which she uses to keep track of her life ... so that she can look back at all the fun she's had.

I have a similar goal in mind for this blog ...

I am fortunate to be the husband of an always incredible, sometimes infuriating woman, Katie Kendall.

In 1989, Katie and I met at Taylor High School in Katy, Texas. That fall, Katie had moved from Norman, Oklahoma, and I'd arrived from Dallas, Texas. She dated my brother's best friend, and my brother briefly dated her best friend. Katie and I have never dated, never ran with the same people. We both matriculated to A&M in 1992, and ended up in Houston thereafter. After our 10 year high school reunion, we got to know each other as the people we'd become rather than the idiotic teenagers we had been. On New Year's Eve 2004, Katie and I married in our Austin backyard. We've had a lot of fun, frustration, and fantastic food (needed a third "F") over the last few years, and I wouldn't change a single minute ... except this one huge fight we had ... Oh! Katie! Didn't know you were reading this. Nothing. I wasn't saying anything about a fight. We'd have to have had a disagreement for me to say anything about one, right? So I couldn't be saying anything about a fight. *whew* ... I'd say more about her, but hopefully Katie will post on this blog as well, and I'll let her pass along her own info.

I'm also father of two wonderful, beautiful, funny, and incredibly frustrating kids, Alyssa and Jackson.

Alyssa Lillian was born at the Austin Area Birthing Center on December 14th, 2005. Aly's a very big girl of three. She loves helping Mommy and Daddy. She really enjoys being a big sister. She hates napping and being told what to do.

On the 10th of July, 2007, Jackson Cooper decided to be born at Nativity Birthing Center in The Woodlands. Since Jackson is our second child, I contrast everything he does against his sister. I know, I know, I'm a horrible parent; sue me. As an engineer by training and practice, I expect the second-time around to be very similar to the first ... ya know, given the same input. Not so much with children apparently. Jackson still (at a year and a half) loves to cuddle. Alyssa was done cuddling as soon as she could crawl away from me. At the same time, Jackson is definitely a BOY. He crawled around the house with a bat and a ball (not pushed by Dad, I swear!), and digs cars.

I love them all. They do memorable things from time to time. The kids do things everyday that I want to remember, but will most certainly forget. So my goal of this blog is to document all of the memorable (and not so memorable) things we do.

I have a vast array of interests, so I'm sure that I'll post on a variety of topics. I hope that Katie will join me in this endeavor, as she has a great many passions as well.

Anyway, thanks for taking a few minutes to read my initial blathering. Hope that you come back to read more.