And here it is....for some reason I can only blog once a year. So for anyone who wants to read the yearly update of the Costello's here it is.
I looked back at my pictures to see if I could remember what we did each month this year and well, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. My picture file contains mostly selfies that Nathan took and then they were uploaded to my pictures through the Photo Stream. So following is my best guess of the highlights of our year.
January - Melissa moved back home. She was at a crossroads and needed some down time and family time to decide what was next for her. We really enjoyed having her here.
February - The big highlight was that Darin returned from his mission to Tempe, AZ. He had grown over the 2 years and it was so great to have him here!
March - This was a month of competitions for Adam and DeeAnn in school. They played at various Solo and Ensemble competitions and at Band and Choir competitions. All of their groups did very well. The exciting thing was that DeeAnn got a I on her vocal solo and got to go to the state competition where she received a I-. Darin and Melissa both got jobs as call takers for the Alexandria Yellow cab Company. (Thanks big brother Ben) and the set up shop in the garage.
April - We got out back yard landscaped. That was exciting because it meant the kids now have grass to play on as well as a trampoline and swing set. Yay!!
May - DeeAnn graduated from Tuacahn High School. All of DeeAnn's grandparents were here along with most of her cousins. We had a Costello reunion with Joe's Mom and step Dad, his Dad and step Mom, his brother and sister in law and their 12 kids. And his other nephew. It was great to reconnect with them.
June - A month of swim lessons and summer camps. Nathan and EmmaLee enjoyed several sessions of swim lessons. And Adam participated in a Band/Orchestra camp with Tuacahn. He also went to the Boy Scout National Jamboree. They did a quick tour of Niagara Falls, Palmyra, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Gettysburg, and Washington DC. before spending a week at the Summit. A new high adventure camp in West Virginia.
July - We had a great reunion with Jamie's family as it was her parent's 50th wedding anniversary. All of her brothers and sister and nieces and nephews were there except for one niece who is serving a mission.
July also brought two items of exciting news:
1. DeeAnn got her mission call to the Argentina, Cordoba mission!!!
2. KayLee and Joshua announced that they would be the proud parents of triplets!
Also in July Melissa decided it was time for her to move back to Kansas and attend school at Johnson Community College doing prerequisites for Dental Hygiene school. We will miss her!
August - A big change for us and Jamie decided it was time to send the little ones to school. It was a tough decision but we all felt it was the right decision. So Adam continues at Tuacahn High. EmmaLee enrolled in George Washington Academy, a great charter school near our home. Nathan wasn't quite ready for being gone all day and GWA had all day Kindergarten so he enrolled in Kindergarten at Crimson Elementary a new STEM elementary also near by. After a couple of months of "school is too long" he now loves it.
September - Darin left us to attend BYU. He still gets to work for Alexandria Yellow cab so that was great for him.
October - Just plugging along with school etc. The most exciting thing was that Nathan turned 6!! and he was a purple minion for Halloween.
November - A lot of November was spent getting DeeAnn ready for her mission. Girls are a lot harder to get ready for than boys. With boys it's go to J.C. Penny or similar store buy a couple of suits and a bunch of white shirts and some sturdy shoes and you are good to go. Not so with girls. But DeeAnn was really good to go shopping with her cousin and a friend (because she knows her mother hates shopping and is no good at it.)
Also in November--Thanksgiving. We had a nice dinner at our house with all of Jamie's family that live close. And even her brother from Arizona made it.
December - DeeAnn needed to be in the MTC on December 4th. And we woke up to something that never happens in St. George....SNOW!! There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground and the snow was still falling. After checking road conditions and weather for the next couple of days we decided to brave it and take her to Provo. We arrived safely.
Three days later it snowed for over 10 hours here. And over a week later we still have at least 4-6 inches of snow in our front yard. There have been a couple of days when the temperatures here in St. George were colder than the temperatures in Salt Lake. And Adam informed me that on one of the days we were colder here than Moscow Russia.
And our last bit of December news before the Holidays.....Joshua got a job here in St. George so KayLee and Joshua will be moving in with us for a few months before and a few months after the triplets are born. We are really excited for that!!!
Joe still works in California but he's able to come home for holidays and special events so we see him every 4 to 6 weeks.
Monday, December 10, 2012
2012 What a year!!!!
It's time for my yearly blog post.
We began 2012 in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia and we are ending in Washington, UT. We've had quite a year. Early in 2012 we got notice that Joe would be getting a new assignment. His new assignment would be at Camp Parks California. We began looking at housing and prices etc in California but not really liking what we saw. Then sometime in March one of us (not sure who) had this crazy idea. Since this assignment would most likely be the last, and because we didn't want to live with California prices and Jamie was tired of living in the city, why not have the family move back home to Southern Utah and Joe would work in California and come home to visit.
We flew to Utah for Easter to look for a house. After a day of looking at all the houses the size we wanted and in our price range and rejecting them all, we found a neighborhood with exactly what we wanted so we signed the papers to have our very own new house built.
We had all of our stuff packed and moved out of Virginia in early June but our house wouldn't be done until mid-August. So Jamie and the kids moved in with Jamie's parents for the summer. It was fun living in a small town again. Life was a lot slower. One day Jamie marveled that she dropped EmmaLee off for an activity, did an errand at the grocery store, played with Nathan at the park for 30 min., picked up EmmaLee and got back home in less than an hour!
Finally our house was finished and we moved in the end of August. It has been an adjustment moving back to Utah but I think we are finally getting used to it.
Joe is working at Camp Parks California, near Dublin. He lives in a rented room in Castro Valley and rides his bike to work. He gets to come home to visit when he has 4 day holiday weekends or when he needs to take leave so we see him at least once a month.
Jamie is trying to get a new house set up. Everything is unpacked but windows still need dressing and no pictures are hung. (This may take a while.) She is also homeschooling EmmaLee for 3rd grade and they are involved with a fun homeschool co-op. Nathan occasionally joins us for homeschool.
KayLee graduated with her Master's degree in Social Work from BYU in April!! We are so proud of her. She is currently working for a non profit organization. Her husband, Joshua, earned his RN degree and is working at a couple of hospitals. He is also finishing up his bachelor's degree this year!!! You can read more about them on their blog The Dunn 411
Benjamin spent Spring Semester in Mesa, Arizona going to MCC and working for the Alexandria Yellow Cab Company. In June they called him and asked him to move back to Virginia to work in their office and they told him he could name his salary. So he named a salary, they accepted it and after spending the 4th of July week here with us, he moved back to Virginia. He is now attending Northern Virginia Community College and working (and living) at Alexandria Yellow Cab.
Darin is still serving his mission in the Arizona, Tempe mission. He has served mostly in the Metro area, Chandler, Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek etc. He loves the work and is looking forward to his return in February. Due to our move and being in a couple of wards that split, by the time Darin gets home is missionary records will have been in 5 different wards.
Melissa is still living and working in Kansas. She finished her CNA certificate and has been working for a home care company and also still working at the mailbox store. She moved into an apartment and is loving being independent.
DeeAnn chose to go to Tuacahn High School for the performing arts this year. It's 30 min from home but she car pools with her cousin who also attends there. She made the madrigal choir and is busy performing with them. They competed in Cedar City's Shakespeare competition where they took 2nd place and recently they performed at several venue's in Las Vegas. DeeAnn is really enjoying her Sr. year which is great as she has gone to a different school for each of her high school years.
Adam is also attending Tuacahn High School this year. He is doing well after spending three years doing homeschool. He has made a lot of friends and is taking percussion lessons. Adam is still working on Scouts and is hoping to be able to attend the National Jamboree in West Virginia this July.
EmmaLee turned 8 years old in June and was baptized. Since her birthday is close to the 4th of July all of her brother's and Sisters (except Darin) were able to attend. It was a great day!!! EmmaLee is still doing homeschool this year. She loves her co-op group and is making new friends.
Nathan is well...Nathan. He is either super excited and happy or he is not. Thankfully he is happy most of the time. We love his exuberance!!! He loves birthday's. He gets excited no matter who's birthday it is. And he really keeps that little kid joy of Christmas in our home as every day he asks "Is it Christmas?"
Whew!!! I shouldn't have had so many kids!! But that is in a nutshell what we are doing this year.
We'd love to hear from you!!
Love the Costello's
We began 2012 in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia and we are ending in Washington, UT. We've had quite a year. Early in 2012 we got notice that Joe would be getting a new assignment. His new assignment would be at Camp Parks California. We began looking at housing and prices etc in California but not really liking what we saw. Then sometime in March one of us (not sure who) had this crazy idea. Since this assignment would most likely be the last, and because we didn't want to live with California prices and Jamie was tired of living in the city, why not have the family move back home to Southern Utah and Joe would work in California and come home to visit.
We flew to Utah for Easter to look for a house. After a day of looking at all the houses the size we wanted and in our price range and rejecting them all, we found a neighborhood with exactly what we wanted so we signed the papers to have our very own new house built.
We had all of our stuff packed and moved out of Virginia in early June but our house wouldn't be done until mid-August. So Jamie and the kids moved in with Jamie's parents for the summer. It was fun living in a small town again. Life was a lot slower. One day Jamie marveled that she dropped EmmaLee off for an activity, did an errand at the grocery store, played with Nathan at the park for 30 min., picked up EmmaLee and got back home in less than an hour!
Finally our house was finished and we moved in the end of August. It has been an adjustment moving back to Utah but I think we are finally getting used to it.
Joe is working at Camp Parks California, near Dublin. He lives in a rented room in Castro Valley and rides his bike to work. He gets to come home to visit when he has 4 day holiday weekends or when he needs to take leave so we see him at least once a month.
Jamie is trying to get a new house set up. Everything is unpacked but windows still need dressing and no pictures are hung. (This may take a while.) She is also homeschooling EmmaLee for 3rd grade and they are involved with a fun homeschool co-op. Nathan occasionally joins us for homeschool.
KayLee graduated with her Master's degree in Social Work from BYU in April!! We are so proud of her. She is currently working for a non profit organization. Her husband, Joshua, earned his RN degree and is working at a couple of hospitals. He is also finishing up his bachelor's degree this year!!! You can read more about them on their blog The Dunn 411
Benjamin spent Spring Semester in Mesa, Arizona going to MCC and working for the Alexandria Yellow Cab Company. In June they called him and asked him to move back to Virginia to work in their office and they told him he could name his salary. So he named a salary, they accepted it and after spending the 4th of July week here with us, he moved back to Virginia. He is now attending Northern Virginia Community College and working (and living) at Alexandria Yellow Cab.
Darin is still serving his mission in the Arizona, Tempe mission. He has served mostly in the Metro area, Chandler, Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek etc. He loves the work and is looking forward to his return in February. Due to our move and being in a couple of wards that split, by the time Darin gets home is missionary records will have been in 5 different wards.
Melissa is still living and working in Kansas. She finished her CNA certificate and has been working for a home care company and also still working at the mailbox store. She moved into an apartment and is loving being independent.
DeeAnn chose to go to Tuacahn High School for the performing arts this year. It's 30 min from home but she car pools with her cousin who also attends there. She made the madrigal choir and is busy performing with them. They competed in Cedar City's Shakespeare competition where they took 2nd place and recently they performed at several venue's in Las Vegas. DeeAnn is really enjoying her Sr. year which is great as she has gone to a different school for each of her high school years.
Adam is also attending Tuacahn High School this year. He is doing well after spending three years doing homeschool. He has made a lot of friends and is taking percussion lessons. Adam is still working on Scouts and is hoping to be able to attend the National Jamboree in West Virginia this July.
EmmaLee turned 8 years old in June and was baptized. Since her birthday is close to the 4th of July all of her brother's and Sisters (except Darin) were able to attend. It was a great day!!! EmmaLee is still doing homeschool this year. She loves her co-op group and is making new friends.
Nathan is well...Nathan. He is either super excited and happy or he is not. Thankfully he is happy most of the time. We love his exuberance!!! He loves birthday's. He gets excited no matter who's birthday it is. And he really keeps that little kid joy of Christmas in our home as every day he asks "Is it Christmas?"
Whew!!! I shouldn't have had so many kids!! But that is in a nutshell what we are doing this year.
We'd love to hear from you!!
Love the Costello's
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Christmas Letter
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow! has it been a year already. Time has flown by and it appears that blogging has been the lowest of my priorities. So I guess it's my yearly "catch up."
Joe continues to work as the MIRC chief of training. It keeps him busy and often traveling.
Jamie is still trying out the homeschooling thing. Keeping up with 3 kids ranging in age from 17 to 7 is tricky as she can't really dovetail any of their curriculum. Add one very busy 4 year old and you will understand why blogging has been a low priority.
KayLee and Joshua are doing well in Spanish Fork. KayLee will finish her master's in Social work this Spring. We are quite proud of her. She is much better at keeping her blog up to date. You can see all her info at Dunn Dunn Duuuuunnnnnn.
We loved having Ben home for 8 months. He works for Alexandria Yellow cab. It started as a temporary job helping to install screens in cabs and they liked him so well they hired him full time. He worked with them here in Virginia until he moved to Mesa in September to go to MCC. He still works for them taking calls. Yea for comptuers and technology!! After some paperwork problems, he is finally registered to attend Spring Semester at Mesa Community College.
Darin is currently serving in the Arizona, Tempe mission. If you recall, that is the same mission Ben served in. And the most interesting thing is that they also had the same first area. He is doing well, learning a lot and loving the people.
Melissa graduated from Mount Vernon High in May. In September she flew the nest and moved to LaVerkin, UT where she lived with Aunt Sherece and Uncle Tom and worked at Dairy Queen. In November, she moved back to Lansing, Kansas. She will be working at a mailing shop and attending KCKCC working towards her CNA.
DeeAnn decided that she'd try homeschooling this year so she is taking some of her Junior year classes from BYU independent study and some of them from her mother. She is enjoying setting her own schedule and moving at her own pace. She auditioned for a musical with a HomeSchool theatre group and will be a Narrator in an upcoming production of Aladin Jr. She keeps busy attending all of the practices.
Adam continues to work on scouts. His goal is to have his Eagle by the end of 2013. He also continues to homeschool. He's a big help around the house and is always willing to babysit.
EmmaLee is 7 and amazes us with her vocabulary. She uses such interesting words. We wonder where she learns them. She's a great big sister to Nathan and loves playing with him. She joined a homeschool group called Classical Conversations this year and it's unbelievable all the things she has memorized.
Nathan continues to grow and entertain us all. His imagination has really blossomed. He loves angry birds and usually spends his day playing with a myriad of toys but always including his angry birds. He's also joined the "brony" ranks as he loves playing "My Little Pony" with his sister.
2011 has been quite an eventful year for us. We started it out on the beach in Florida as we'd spent Christmas with Joe's mom. We spent another week on Virginia beach in August. Half of our kids have now graduated from high school and moved into the "grown-up" world. (And Jamie likes to say Half my kids have graduated but sadly one hasn't even started school yet." Jamie was in an accident and totaled our car so we had to get our other van back from Melissa in Utah which precipitated her move to Kansas and got Ben home for Thanksgiving.
We'll be having a quite Christmas at home as three of our children will be away. But we are very excited to see Melissa!!!
Wow! has it been a year already. Time has flown by and it appears that blogging has been the lowest of my priorities. So I guess it's my yearly "catch up."
Joe continues to work as the MIRC chief of training. It keeps him busy and often traveling.
Jamie is still trying out the homeschooling thing. Keeping up with 3 kids ranging in age from 17 to 7 is tricky as she can't really dovetail any of their curriculum. Add one very busy 4 year old and you will understand why blogging has been a low priority.
KayLee and Joshua are doing well in Spanish Fork. KayLee will finish her master's in Social work this Spring. We are quite proud of her. She is much better at keeping her blog up to date. You can see all her info at Dunn Dunn Duuuuunnnnnn.
We loved having Ben home for 8 months. He works for Alexandria Yellow cab. It started as a temporary job helping to install screens in cabs and they liked him so well they hired him full time. He worked with them here in Virginia until he moved to Mesa in September to go to MCC. He still works for them taking calls. Yea for comptuers and technology!! After some paperwork problems, he is finally registered to attend Spring Semester at Mesa Community College.
Darin is currently serving in the Arizona, Tempe mission. If you recall, that is the same mission Ben served in. And the most interesting thing is that they also had the same first area. He is doing well, learning a lot and loving the people.
Melissa graduated from Mount Vernon High in May. In September she flew the nest and moved to LaVerkin, UT where she lived with Aunt Sherece and Uncle Tom and worked at Dairy Queen. In November, she moved back to Lansing, Kansas. She will be working at a mailing shop and attending KCKCC working towards her CNA.
DeeAnn decided that she'd try homeschooling this year so she is taking some of her Junior year classes from BYU independent study and some of them from her mother. She is enjoying setting her own schedule and moving at her own pace. She auditioned for a musical with a HomeSchool theatre group and will be a Narrator in an upcoming production of Aladin Jr. She keeps busy attending all of the practices.
Adam continues to work on scouts. His goal is to have his Eagle by the end of 2013. He also continues to homeschool. He's a big help around the house and is always willing to babysit.
EmmaLee is 7 and amazes us with her vocabulary. She uses such interesting words. We wonder where she learns them. She's a great big sister to Nathan and loves playing with him. She joined a homeschool group called Classical Conversations this year and it's unbelievable all the things she has memorized.
Nathan continues to grow and entertain us all. His imagination has really blossomed. He loves angry birds and usually spends his day playing with a myriad of toys but always including his angry birds. He's also joined the "brony" ranks as he loves playing "My Little Pony" with his sister.
2011 has been quite an eventful year for us. We started it out on the beach in Florida as we'd spent Christmas with Joe's mom. We spent another week on Virginia beach in August. Half of our kids have now graduated from high school and moved into the "grown-up" world. (And Jamie likes to say Half my kids have graduated but sadly one hasn't even started school yet." Jamie was in an accident and totaled our car so we had to get our other van back from Melissa in Utah which precipitated her move to Kansas and got Ben home for Thanksgiving.
We'll be having a quite Christmas at home as three of our children will be away. But we are very excited to see Melissa!!!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Cherry Blossoms
We didn't want to miss the cherry blossoms so we drove to D.C. one evening for Family Home Evening. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was dark so we checked out the Jefferson Memorial and bought a few souvenirs.
A few days later we made it in time to see them. Wow!!! They are beautiful!!!
Adam is good at taking close ups of still life.
DeeAnn and Melissa
Adam and the Washington Monument
We also decided to check out the Franklin Roosevelt Monument
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Nearly Killed by a Tree
Friday, after having gone to the store for a few things, I drove up to the garage and pushed the opener. Nothing happened. Think that our garage door was broken or messed up again, I sent Adam into the house to open it from the inside. He returned a few minutes later to inform me that the power was out. So I left the car in the driveway and went inside.
DeeAnn works at a nearby library and it was time for her to go to work. She called them and they still had power so I took her to work. I was just pulling into my driveway again when she called to say that the library power was out and they were clearing the building so I needed to pick her up. I left Nathan in the car and ran in the house to make sure Adam was home as he had not been before. He was home and since the power was out and they had nothing better to do Adam and EmmaLee got in the car with us to pick up DeeAnn.
On the route I drive to the library there is a really strange road Map of Road (click here to see it) One direction stops (going east on 23rd @ Bixby) the other direction can either travel straight on 23rd or curve on Bixby. Hardy anyone signals so if I'm stopped at 23rd and there is an oncoming car, I wait. Well on this particular day waiting saved our lives. A car was coming in the opposite direction, no signaling to turn but I waited anyway. After I realized that it was going straight I began to make the sharp turn onto Bixby when we heard a loud cracking noise. I slowed and looked around and in a split second a tree fell right across the road. None of the branches that were attached to the tree hit the car but a lot of flying debris which broke off the tree as it fell did hit us.
At first I thought that it was just a branch that broke off a tree and fell. So seeing that the road was blocked and that no one was hurt I turned around and took another route to pick up DeeAnn. It was a couple of minutes later as I was driving that the enormity of that close call hit me. We were literally 3 feet from being smashed by a falling tree. Our guardian angles were certainly watching out for us.
After we got home I sent Adam to take some pictures of the tree. By that time there were workers trying to clear it of the road and they had a perimeter set up so he couldn't get very close but here are a few of the shots he did get.
Side Note: our power didn't come back on until 10:53 pm. Lot's of downed trees from the wind kept the power company busy.
DeeAnn works at a nearby library and it was time for her to go to work. She called them and they still had power so I took her to work. I was just pulling into my driveway again when she called to say that the library power was out and they were clearing the building so I needed to pick her up. I left Nathan in the car and ran in the house to make sure Adam was home as he had not been before. He was home and since the power was out and they had nothing better to do Adam and EmmaLee got in the car with us to pick up DeeAnn.
On the route I drive to the library there is a really strange road Map of Road (click here to see it) One direction stops (going east on 23rd @ Bixby) the other direction can either travel straight on 23rd or curve on Bixby. Hardy anyone signals so if I'm stopped at 23rd and there is an oncoming car, I wait. Well on this particular day waiting saved our lives. A car was coming in the opposite direction, no signaling to turn but I waited anyway. After I realized that it was going straight I began to make the sharp turn onto Bixby when we heard a loud cracking noise. I slowed and looked around and in a split second a tree fell right across the road. None of the branches that were attached to the tree hit the car but a lot of flying debris which broke off the tree as it fell did hit us.
At first I thought that it was just a branch that broke off a tree and fell. So seeing that the road was blocked and that no one was hurt I turned around and took another route to pick up DeeAnn. It was a couple of minutes later as I was driving that the enormity of that close call hit me. We were literally 3 feet from being smashed by a falling tree. Our guardian angles were certainly watching out for us.
Side Note: our power didn't come back on until 10:53 pm. Lot's of downed trees from the wind kept the power company busy.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Mount Vernon
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Darin Leaves
On February 16, 2011 very early in the morning we dropped Darin off at the Reagan National Airport. From there he flew to Salt Lake City and from there caught a shuttle to take him to the MTC. He will be serving for two years in the Arizona, Tempe mission.
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