Welcome to Dellenbaugh Central, the beautiful Web home of Mark, Alison, Ryan, and Kyle Dellenbaugh.
The Dellenbaughs live in Cedar Park, Texas, a suburb of Austin. Mark earned a master's degree in History in May of 1996 and a master's degree in Library and Information Science in December of 1997, both from The University of Texas at Austin, and has been working in user experience design since 1998. Alison (formerly Alison Black) has a degree in Radio-Television-Film from UT, was a technical writer at National Instruments
until Ryan was born, and currently does some freelance writing. Ryan and Kyle keep busy in their roles as the most adorable children in the world.
Our Latest News
Kyle is 4! He turned 4 on January 14, 2005, and celebrated with a party at Radijazz Playnasium, an indoor playplace in Austin. To our amazement, he recently read his first book by himself that wasn't just memorized--a book called Drops of Water that only uses 10 words. He is so proud of himself!
Alison won a day in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! She used it as a bookmobile to give free books to kids in Cedar Park and Austin. We got a surprising amount of news coverage -- here are the Austin Public Library press release, Austin American-Statesman article (might require site membership to read), and News 8 Austin TV story. We had a blast! (And the kids may never stop singing, "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener!")
Ryan is 6! He had a "Knights, Princesses, and Bouncy Castles" party at a playplace full of inflatable moonwalks. See the birthday boy and his castle cake (which Alison made)!
Ryan and Kyle took gymnastics and swimming last summer, and really enjoyed both. Both boys have continued their swim lessons at an indoor pool this school year, and both are now swimming unassisted. This summer, Ryan is moving up to the intermediate level, and Kyle is moving up to advanced beginners.
Ryan is almost done with kindergarten! We held him back a year because his birthday falls so close to the cut-off, but he is already reading well and doing a lot of math, so we're still a bit unsure about the decision. He has enjoyed kindergarten so far, though. Kyle is in a 3's preschool class and also greatly enjoys it.
In January 2004, we spent a while in our previous hometown of Arlington, where Alison participated in a Creative Arts Theatre & School alumni production of the play Free to Be...You and Me. It was very fun and invigorating for Alison...and probably very tiring for Mark, who got to take care of the kids while Alison was in rehearsals and performances! Of course the kids also got to see the show, and probably won't stop singing the songs for months.
Alison's brother Gavin recently signed up to be a Hollywood extra--and has been working steadily ever since! He has appeared in episodes of The Practice, ER, Gilmore Girls, CSI, The Guardian, Cold Case, The Drew Carey Show, & The King of Queens, & was a regular extra in the HBO series Deadwood. He also appears in the movies National Treasure, The Princess Diaries 2, & The Aviator, and was a "featured extra" on the show Las Vegas in April 2005--they even made fake $100 bills with his pictures on them for use in the show! What a life! (And he's the one who didn't want to be an actor!) Alison got to see him for the first time in nearly 4 years when she and her mother had a brief airplane layover in L.A. in December 2003, but he is overdue for a visit to Texas!
An article Alison wrote about her Wienermobile experience appeared in the January-February 2005 issue of the SCBWI Bulletin. Alison also had a short story in the Fall 2004 issue of The First Line and another story in the Tall Tales and Short Stories, Vol. 2 anthology from Tall Tales Press, and will have a short article in an upcoming issue of Once Upon A Time. Her poem "High Dive" appeared in Guideposts for Kids in June 2004. She also had a poem called "Supplication" in Purpose in February 2004, and a children's short story called "All's Fair at Science Fairs" in On the Line the same month.
Alison has a web site devoted to her freelance writing, complete with a blog.
And don't forget to ooh and aah over our lop-eared bunny, Pablo, who is now 8 years old. (More pictures added 5/11/05)
Updates on our lives with two small children will appear in our Life As We Know It blog on the rare occasions when we update it! (Last updated 4/25/05)
This page last updated 5/11/05. We can't vouch for all of the links at the moment, though. (Shockingly, we've had a site for more than 9 years now! We finally deleted the links page that hadn't been updated since 1997, but some of our other links may be ancient as well!)
Our Latest News
October 2003 family photo, April 2003 family portraits, Ryan's room and Kyle's room with their new beds, & Kyle's 2nd birthday
Write us anytime at everyone@dellenbaugh.com!
