Welcome to the House!

We've found a new home on the web, and hope you'll stop by and visit once in a while! To spice life up a little (who doesn't like spice?), we've all changed our names. Yes, we've become crayons - and not the fancy kind like chartreuse and magenta - just Red, Green, Blue, and Pink. And with a toddler and preschooler, all the crayons in our real house are broken, so why not here in cyberspace?

To start things off (and probably ensure that you never, ever come back here), I'm playing catch-up/Christmas greeting by posting a few highlights from 2009 - aka, the longest blog post you will ever see here:

January 2009: Here we are, one happy family to start off the year. Well, except Pink. She never smiles on command.

Pink did turn 1 in January, and we did manage to get a smile, but probably by holding up candy. Or more likely, bacon, her favorite food.
February 2009: In February, it's still pretty cold where we live, so we brought Blue's trike inside and he learned to ride on his "track". I took the tape off the floor after a while, but not before inviting all his playgroup friends to bring their trikes over!

March 2009: Red and Green celebrated 13 happy years of marriage! Lucky us!

And warmer weather - nothing as good as getting out of the house again!

April 2009: We had a fabulous Easter visit with Red's family. Do I get to make up names for them, too? If so, here is where the real color would come in - these are some of my favorite people in the whole world, and I wish we lived closer.

May 2009: We camped with our church group. Pink was less than thrilled, Blue couldn't get enough of it. Blue talks his dad into wearing these shirts anytime he can.

June 2009: We participated with a youth group from church in re-enacting a pioneer handcart trek. This was an amazing experience that I hope I get a chance to repeat again sometime in the future. The distant future, when I have more time to prepare my body for the intense Texas sun and try to avoid heat exhaustion.

July 2009: After mastering tie-dye (well, not exactly mastering), I decided we could wear matching 4th of July shirts for our trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. I was trying for red, white, and blue, but ended up more aqua and magenta. Nevertheless, the family cooperated nicely, and we got lots of funny looks and dumb comments.

August 2009: We did whatever we could to cool off.

September 2009: Our family vacation for the year was in Hawaii. I can't say enough nice things. It was absolute paradise, and we all enjoyed spending time together and getting away from our regular life!

Blue also started preschool in September, and totally loves going to school like a big kid.October 2009: Blue turned 4, and was thrilled with a visit from his grandparents.

And of course, we ended the month by dressing up and begging the neighbors for candy - a tradition I do not even try to understand.

If you've made it this far, thank you very much! I hope you'll come visit again. And think of us the next time you open a box of crayons and maybe find some of them a little broken.