Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas to all our Family & Friends,

This year I wanted to write our annual Christmas Letter here on my Blog to share the love with more of my favorite people. To my fellow Blog Followers ;) some of the highlights of our year have already been mentioned here, but I wanted to share some of our favorite memories and blessings once again. We also got new family pictures taken by my AMAZING and Talented Friend LEAH!!! I love our pics and have included LOTS of Favorites!!! This is our Christmas Card this year. Cute Hu!

2008 has been a great year for the Zito's in AZ. We have so much to be grateful for. I love this time of year when we get to reflect on all we have been blessed with. This year really has flown by. We have experienced many changes and good changes I'd say. It all really started with Leonard... getting a new job in March 08. After 10 years at Intel working as a computer engineer. We made the big decision to continue his career with a different company. It was a scary move because Leonard has only worked for Intel since he graduated from college. Intel was all we knew. We prayed about this decision and felt it was time to take the next big step. Leonard really enjoyed working for Intel, it was a good company and it would be hard to say goodbye to good co-workers but it was time. Leonard took a service engineer position at Network Appliance or NetApp. They sell PC hardware. One of NetApp's biggest customer in AZ is Go Daddy. A web hosting company. Leonard is dedicated to the Go Daddy account. He enjoys the challenge of something new and he works hard and fits in well. His coworkers are great people. It is all good. Although since Leonard starting working for NetApp, he is super busy, but you have to put in the time when you are the newest guy. So needless to say he is a busy, busy guy. During all this exciting times of changing jobs, Leonard was called to serve as the Ward Mission Leader. This calling is even busier than ever. He loves it and love missionary work. He gets to help the missionaries teach the gospel to our neighbors and other ward members. There is much work to do and I am right here ready to help. In his spare time...yeah right, haven't seen much of that....but he got a new guitar for his birthday and he is taking lessons. He sounds great. It is a good stress reliever for him. My spoiled man ALSO got an early Christmas present. He is the proud owner of a NEW Toyota Tacoma. Our little car has finally broke down for the last time. He can't wait to run any errand for me and I love it. In fact Blake loves the new truck more than Leonard. He talks about it all day long and can't wait to go for a ride. it is really cute!

Loree... As for me, I am always in one project or 2 at the same time. This Christmas season has been super busy for me. I have been staying up way too late EVERY NIGHT!!! Being a mom is hard work and never ending. I am off schedule with all my normal routine, but I love this Christmas stuff. Anyhow, HIGHLIGHTS... Our family went on a fun vacation to Wyoming and Montana also in MARCH 08. This is the first time in YEARS that we all flew there. We normally drive 2 days to get to WY, but with Blake almost 2 (at the time), we opted for flying. We had a great time catching up with the family we love and miss. Let's see, what else was exciting??? Oh I got Implants :0) and Leonard too :)....Heavens no, not those kind ;) May 08 Leonard and I went under the knife and got Visian ICL Surgery on our eyes. (Implantable Corrective Lens) We no longer where glasses. We have better than perfect vision and we LOVE our Eagle Eyes.
Leonard and I also got to spend a weekend together in South Carolina back in June. I have never been to the east coast and we had a wonderful HOT MUGGY time. I am still serving in the Stake Young Women's Presidency as 2nd counselor. It will be 4 years this March. WOW! I can't believe it. I get to work with some Amazing ladies, who I love and admire. I started my ADDICTION...I mean Blog back in July 08 and I love documenting our everyday life and activities, hobbies and adventures. I am especially excited to print my blog into a book. That is my inspiration to have all these journal entries captured in one hardbound book! I am still scrapbooking, I have slowed WAY DOWN. I have too many choices of things to do. Although with my new Cricut Die Cutting Machine, that finally showed up TODAY!!! I have a feeling the fun is about to begin again. YEE HAW!!!
Kaitlyn... is in 4th grade and is growing up way too fast. She is now 10 years old. We tell her to stop growing up so fast but no luck! She is very involved with many activities this year. She is playing the Cello in orchestra and private lessons. ( this girls has a talent for music I never knew about!) It is AWESOME! She is on an after school track & field club & loves to run and exercise. She is also busy as a student council member for her class. She a very responsible young lady. And very Beautiful too! She is really starting to have her own opinions about her likes and dislikes. I am not sure that I like it. She loves activity days 2 times a month and can't wait til she is 12 so she can go to mutual every week and girls camp in the summer with me she hopes. She loved Swim Team this past summer and is thinking about taking Diving this summer. She is looking forward to Christmas break and just chill. We will probably go on a few hikes :) We love our adventurous Kaitlyn.
Carly... is in 2nd grade and is 7 years old. She enjoys school, she loves her teacher and is a very social girl. She has lots of friends and loves to visit with them all day long ;) She has a schedule of who she wants to play with everyday after school. She loves to play with her brother Blake and definitely torments him too. She would disagree. She has lost lots of teeth this past year and has made some bank from the Tooth Fairy. Lucky Girl :) She loves to cook and helps her dad make dinner all the time. I can see her being the permanent chef at the Zito house when she gets older. Should be nice :) Carly love to listen to music and she cranks up the dial in her room to full blast. She is only 7. This is gonna get bad as she gets older. She has a really pretty voice and loves to sing. Carly was on Swim team this last summer for her first time and won a 1st place medal for the backstroke in the Championship meet. We are proud of Carly. She is such a great daughter. We are blessed to have her in our family.

Blake... our 2 1/2 year old boy will be 3 this coming March. He is such a boy! and into EVERYTHING!!! Good thing he is so cute! Blake is a big boy and people think he is older than he really is until they try to ask him questions and he gives them gibberish. He loves his dad’s new truck and can’t wait to go for a ride in it. He loves to watch movies, His top 3 favorites today are Cars, Monsters Inc. & Toy Story. He still loves Finding Nemo though. He LOVES push the play stroller all over the house and eat snacks ALL DAY LONG. Not kidding. He says "SNACKS" every hour. Holy Cow! He has recently learned to jump on the trampoline and it is so fun to watch him. for the past year, he just cried when you put him on the Tramp. It was scary, But somehow, he has mustered up bravery and realized that jumping is FUN!!! We just got a ladder for it and he can come and go as he pleases. It is great. Especially with our AMAZING weather we are LOVING! And believe it or not, the English Language is coming along great with Blake we are having more and more conversations I understand everyday. Today he was telling me all about this little toy lizard. He carried it around all day. He said Lizard 50 times. I didn;t even know he knew the word lizard. So there you go! everyday it is something new. We are glad to have a boy in the house. He is sweet and loud at the same time. And we would never trade it for the world.

Blake's face cracks me up in this pic. what a little goofball :)This pic makes me laugh. Blake is SOOO cooperative. Most of the shoot was fighting Stubborn Blakey boy. Through a miracle, Leah got some beautiful pictures. Thanks again Leah.
Blake RULES THE WORLD!! Here is the proof! :)Ahh, there we go. Smiles on everyone! YAHOO!!!

Wow, now that was ONE Looooooong CHRISTMAS LETTER HU!!! My fingers are going numb from all the typing. Which tells me it is time to wish you all well one last time. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!