Our UgLiEsT ChRisTmaS sWeAtEr PaRTy & our 13 year anniversary!!!

So I was feeling the NEED for another Friend Party and so the planning began for us to Host the Coolest UGLIEST CHRISTMAS SWEATER Party! Leonard and I had fun hunting for the ugliest sweaters in town! Goodwill here we come! ;)

Check it out! Matching Loverly Christmas beauties!!! I had to go to 3 Goodwills to find my perfect sweater...eeeerr I mean my perfect sweater/sweatshirt...it's all the same to me! It's long sleeves and UGLY!!!!

a close up view of these bad boys...mine was wired with blinking Christmas lights and they even worked! Cool HU!!! i think 3 are lit it in this picture :) Leonard's classic beauty was made with love. The Christmas tree even has little ornaments dangling from it! It is Crazy to think someone ACTUALLY made it and WORE IT!!!! ;)

A little kiss for my honey! ohhh and you can see my Christmas lights lit up on my sweater in this bottom left pic! I found my cute headband at the Dollar store! I am soo happy I have such a good sport for a hubby! I trained him that way ;) in fact....

~YESTERDAY WAS OUR 13th YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!~

On Dec. 21st, 1996 ~ I married the man of my dreams! It has been a FABULOUS 13 years! I am so blessed to have Leonard in my life! His is FUN!!! as you can see! :) He is CUTE! as you can see and he treats me like his QUEEN! He supports me when I have nutty ideas and plays along even though it might not be his idea of fun :) He wore this ugly women's Christmas sweater just for me!!!! I really am blessed! Thanks Leonard for our wonderful life! I love you like CRAZY!!! I can't wait to spend forever with you!!!!

Now back to the UGLY SWEATER FUN!!!!

The Eagar's Get Up was SWEET!!! Josh made his sweater! That nasty Santa was a family heirloom that hung on the wall and Kristi stitched to to his sweater! It actually was made to hang and hold a little potted plant! Kristi's AWESOME Vest and turtleneck was found at our local goodwill! LOVE IT GIRL!!! :)

A close up the the Eagar's Christmas Delights! :)

****of course I had an UGLY SWEATER CONTEST and there were 4 categories.

Josh won the MOST HEINOUS CHRISTMAS SWEATER award... which on his award it read...

" The image of your heinous sweater will be burned in my memory longer than it takes this SOLID BRICK OF FRUITCAKE to Rot. Hence...I will suffer til June 2010!!!" Congrats Josh! you are a Winner in my book! in fact your sweater is sooo ugly it is COOL!!!! I may need to borrow it sometime! :) PS i heard JOSH loves FRUITCAKE TOO! :)

Next we have the Stephen's FANTASTIC Ugliness from Head to Toe!

WoW! what an extra surprise for all of us :) Sarah's yellow sweatpants are to die for!

Her sweater has a special place in my heart as I was the lucky one to find it at a goodwill and bought it just in case I changed my mind and wore it! But being the GREAT FRIEND that I am... ;) loaned to a girl in need! I don't think it would have looked THAT GOOD on me anyways ;) I was drawn to the iridescent material on the sweater! It just SCREAMED UGLY!!! There is a little ugly bird made from this material in the smack dab in the middle and these funky twig looking things.... I like to think of it as a modern "Partridge in a pear tree" design! It works right???

Aaron's sweater is a Family sweater...so i won't share my personal opinions about it so I don't offend any one :) but he was looking GOOOD and following the "dress codes" of the night which were...UGLIER THE SWEATER, THE BETTER PARTY!!!!

Thank You Aaron! your pants rock too :)

A close up of the Stephen's Jewels :)

**** Sarah won the award for the DESTROY THIS SWEATER NOW!!! category

She won 2 boxes of matches! on her award it read..." We will never be the same after seeing it...Directions: immediately remove disgusting sweater, take outside, add 2 gallons of gas and ignite!!! Burn baby Burn!" I was having a proud mother like moment when Sarah won wearing this gorgeous top! ;)

oh and all the 4 winners also went home with an UGLY Christmas Mug filled with nuts too! Because they are all NUTS!!!! ;) I wish I would have taken pictures of the prizes! i forgot!!!

You just gotta love the Tueller's FANTABULOUS Christmas sweaters!

They look so cute together! Lisa had to go to several Goodwills to find these babies! I am proud of her mighty effort! It paid off in my book! Her giant jingle bell earrings added the perfect touch! as much as we all ADORED Lisa's loverly and very loved sweater...you could tell who ever the original owner was wore it practically out! :) sweet isn't it???

Doug's cute little Care Bear sweatshirt is just that... cutely ugly!!! And the best part is that Lisa let's us all know as she giggles LOUDLY that it is a WOMEN'S MEDIUM!!! Wow Doug! you really do look great!... If Doug decided to start wearing women's clothing on a regular basis, Doug and Lisa could share clothes! Lisa think of all the possibilities :) Hee Hee!

A close up the the Tueller's Merry Goodness!
You two are so much FUN!!!

Next we have the Gloschats. Now don't be shy!!!! We want to SEE YOUR UGLY SWEATERS! :)
You can kinda get a glimpse of Laura's sweater! I will have to proudly say... that I also found Laura's sweater at one of the many Goodwill's I visited! It was Ugly for sure! It is ugly in the sense that it is seriously OUTDATED UGLY but not horrible! It's what i call a bit ugly! :) Now Joachim's sweater was a BIG SURPRISE Of Ugliness! He constructed it all himself! Now that deserves a Pat on the back! see what happens when I go to pat him on the back.....

WOW!! Thoroughly Surprised with homemade UGLINESS! He even wove lights through his sweater! WOW!!! we all ooohed and aaaahed when we saw the back! funny thing is that the reindeer thingy on his back in the same shape as a toilet lid....hmmmmm curious!!! So do you think it could have been originally made to deck out a toilet lid for Christmas??? no one will ever know for sure! we can only Imagine :)

But to Joachim's delight, he was voted to win " The UGLIEST SWEATER award! Lucky duck! He was the winner of A Roll of Toilet Paper and a box of Chocolate Covered Cherries... WOW!! What a coincidence! On his award, Leonard & I came up with a Yo Sweater so UGLY joke... you know like the YO MAMMA is so ugly jokes.... ok if you don't get it, keep reading :)

~ Yo Sweater is soooo ugly that when you wear it while entering a public restroom, all the toilets flush! boo-yah! You're da BOMB!!!

Joachim was PROUD very Proud :) Congrats Man!

And last but not least the Spunky Davis's Festive Frocks! Holy Christmas Sweater Batman!

I know It is Super Duper Festive! Leah never holds back! that is what i love about her! She can say that she designed both fabulous sweaters! all the lovely materials found at our local goodwill! SWEET DOG! I think her Christmas Tree hat is like the cherry on top! I sure love ya Leah! Doug's 3D Snowman is pretty rockin too! I really love those silky smooth bell peppers.. i mean bells attached to Leah's sweater! It is just too awesome to handle! I love it all!!!

A close up of the Davis Holly Jolly combo! Can you say TACKY???

Well lucky for Leah everyone agreed and voted Leah for the TACKIEST CHRISTMAS SWEATER!!! Her award read..." Since you OBVIOUSLY have NO taste, these Festive Santa Socks were made just for you!" She proudly put on her new socks beaming with pride! ahhh good times!

So there you have it, the entire amazing good looking folks at the ZITO's UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER Party! ooh everyone look at Laura's sweater! :) see it is outdated ugly! told you :) Well for the rest of the night we ate goodies, treat and more goodies. We played a couple FUN games and had a white elephant gift exchange! We were rolling on the floor laughing! Meow! ffffrrrrrrrrt! Man parties are FUN!

Can't wait to do it again ~ NEXT YEAR!!! keep your eyes peeled for ugly sweaters :) you are gonna need them :)

I didn't forget to take several pics of the Goodies and Treats! They were all so scrumptious! Thanks to all my pals for sharing your laughter, fun, ugly sweaters and yumminess with us! I need to get some recipes for sure!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

oh and Leonard thanks for the best 13 years of my life! ;)xoxoxox

Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas Family, Friends & Blog Stalkers… ;)
It’s that time again to write our Zito Family Christmas Newsletter for 2009! I can’t believe that another year is coming to a close! We had a MIGHTY FINE 2009! We have enjoyed many adventures together, set goals and accomplished them, surprised our selves, made many great memories and have much to be thankful for. We hope you have all had a great year too! I want to re-cap some good times we have enjoyed this year…to my blog followers…some of this may be old news but it is still news :)

But first check out our new family pictures!!! We LOVE THEM!!! Thanks to my amazing talented photography friend and neighbor Leah Davis! I sure love this lady :) Now get cozy and be ready to see lots of great pics and read our Christmas Letter (BOOK) :)

LEONARD…. Leonard is enjoying his job at NetApp! It has been a good year for him. We were especially excited that GoDaddy renewed his contract for another year! YEE-HAW! He is one busy guy and takes on big projects and challenges in the data storage world!

He got to enjoy SEVERAL Backpacking/Camping/Hiking/Fishing/Climbing Mancations in 2009. He really is one lucky guy ;) And I have been told I am one AWESOME/Crazy Wife for “letting” him go on all these adventures. I love my Lenny and know he is a hard working man that deserves a little R&R…Leonard Style! It really is good for everyone :) I just have to remind him not to wear out his “adventure welcome”! LOL :) Anyway, Life is Good :)

In Church news, He was released as the Ward Mission Leader back in September. It was a sad day, but the same day he was released, they called him to be the Young Men's Secretary. He was really excited to be back in the YM’s program. He loves working with all the boys & helping them to become eagle scouts. Oh and of course, the camping trips will be a bonus for him :)

We have missed the weekly visits with the missionaries in our home! The missionaries are AWESOME! Speaking of missionaries…my little bro Michael reports to the MTC Wed Dec 16th. He will be serving in the Dominican Republic for 2 years speaking Spanish! We are so excited for him in this new adventure in his life.

Loree….I have been one busy lady too! The year began with the planning of another great year of Girls Camp for our Stake Young Women. ( it was a huge success in June) I also got called to teach primary on Sundays. I have been lucky enough to have 2 different classes to teach this year first it was the Valiant 9’s and then for the last few months the Sunbeams class ( 4 yr olds) I have loved serving! Many of you know, I was recently released from the Stake YW presidency. I was sad! I have been serving there for the past 4 years and 9 months! It was great! But life is good with the primary kids too !
Anyways, I started selling my TOTE-ally Cute Scripture Totes and I have sold about ½ my inventory! I think I might set up an Etsy Shop and see if I can sell the rest. I was hoping to figure out the in’s and out’s of printing my own blog book, but it is still on the to-do list! 2010 is my year for that. As always, I love projects and always a couple going at the same time. From organizing this or that, changing or adding new/ new to me home décor! I just took a Cricut Class at the scrapbooking store and learned more tricks and tips about that AWESOME die cutting machine. Hence the cute holiday banners you will be seeing over this next year. I have put scrapbooking on top of my list for next year too since I am soooo far behind and I need to get back to my old standby creative love!

Many of you know Leonard & I trained like crazy and rode in 2 Century (100 & 150 miles) bike rides for Multiple Sclerosis! We loved the challenge and look forward to many more rides and races in our future!

Kaitlyn…. Our beautiful daughter is now 11 and in 5th grade! She is a delight to have around. She is very helpful and is the BEST BABYSITTER EVER! I am sooo lucky! She is still playing her cello and getting better every day. She is practicing a Hymn medley she will play in church hopefully next month. She swam in swim team again this summer and went to city divisionals. The competition gets tougher ever year and she did very well. Kaitlyn is excited to swim this summer! She also tried diving and loved it!

We enjoyed several fun family adventures Kaitlyn loved our Disneyland trip we took in May. We enjoyed 3 fun days speed walking through the park. We especially loved Splash Mountain & Pirates of the Caribbean to keep us cool. California had record heat that week (of course while we are there!)

Kaitlyn has loved the adventures she get to take with her dad. They go hiking and climbing at the climbing gym. She is looking forward to a backpacking trip Leonard is planning to take with his girls soon. Kaitlyn is running with the track Club at school and is looking forward to join the AZ Flames Track club this January. She did The Thanksgiving Triathlon with us and did great. She improved all her times in running, biking and swimming! She can’t wait for the next family Tri we will do! we can’t wait either!

Carly…..Our Sweet Little Lovely Girl had a special birthday this year. She turned 8 and was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. It was a very special day for our Carly! She loves 3rd grade and has Kaitlyn’s old teacher! Lucky us! Mr. BESTolo we call him :) She began taking piano lessons this year and loves learning all the notes and playing the songs! We can’t wait for her to learn more beautiful music.

She also enjoyed a fun summer of swimming on the swim team and placed in the state finals. She also tried out diving and loved it! She can’t wait for it to warm up so she can swim again.

Disneyland was also a good memory for Carly! This summer we took a 2 week long road trip through UT to Idaho to Montana to Wyoming to visit our Zito family and enjoy some other adventures along the way! It was the ULTIMATE road trip! Carly was in heaven when we surprised the girls with their own Nintendo DS games to enjoy the 3000 miles on the road. ( it was the best decision Leonard & I made all year ;) Carly loved visiting Grandma & Grandpa Warner, The smelly mud pots of Yellowstone, Granny Camp & Zito Cousins, Temple Square and Zion’s national park! Good times!

Carly participated in her first Triathlon on Thanksgiving with the rest of our family (except Blake) she did AWESOME! we were so proud of her!

Blake…. Our little man is NOT so little anymore. He is growing like a weed and we wouldn't have it any other way! He is 3 ½ years old and 42 lbs!!! i know HUGE!! He is loving preschool this year! I think he has the best teacher! ( Miss Katie ROCKS!) Blake has learned a lot and his English is improving! Although, his attention span is still 7 seconds long, so conversations with Blake are very very interesting! ;)

He loves to build houses with his blocks and loves to watch them crash and tumble to the ground. He is always humming a tune, beeping like a robot or making some new sound effect up ALL DAY LONG! I think I have become use to the background noise from Blake.

He LOVES balloons, the MOON, The Earth, MOVIES, UP!, Thomas the Train, Buzz Lightyear and making as much noise as possible! He shouts when he speaks and can be heard for miles! We love our LOUD BLAKEY BOY! He loves Nursery class at church and when he shows up every Sunday he shouts…”I’M HERE!!!!!” He will be moving up to the Sunbeam class next year! WOW!

Blake LOVEs to wrestle with his DAD! He growls and attacks! It is pretty funny to watch. ;) He has NO FEAR! Oh and I can’t forget that Blake got potty trained this summer right after our Ultimate Road Trip! Let me say LIFE IS GOOD! No more Diapers for us! YAHOOOOO!! That is worth its own celebration party!

Ahhhh isn't this just precious??!!!

Lenny & Me and the SUPS!

We love this big mountian! Leonard loves to hike it & I like to bike next to it! :)

I sure love my Lenny!

This it the end of our photo session and BLAKE refused to take anymore pictures! so This is really the last family picture! I think it sums up the stubborn stinker of a boy we have! grrrrrr! But we love him anyway :) We can laugh about it now right? ;)

~One last Parting Shot!~

So the Zito’s in AZ are doing mighty fine! We hope your 2009 was FABULOUS! We look forward to 2010 where more road trips, adventures and races will be in our future! We wish you all the best and happiness in your life with your families! Thanks for reading our Christmas Newsletter ...BOOK! You know you loved it! And all the pictures were just a bonus ;) Thanks again Leah for the Beautiful pics! We love them!

~Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!!~

Kaitlyn's Christmas Orchestra Concert

On Dec 3rd, Kaitlyn had her Christmas Orchestra Concert at school. It was fun to see her on stage with the rest of 5th grade!

I am so happy Kaitlyn has discovered a talent that comes naturally to her!

I don't want to brag, but I must....;) Kaitlyn is the BEST Cello player at her school! :) it's true just ask her! ;) LOL! Orchestra at school is a great place to warm up her skills but we depend on private lessons to jump to really teach her how to play her instrument. I need to get some videos of her playing and post it here. hmmmm good idea :)

Great job Kaitlyn! We sure love you!

My Christmas Decor GALORE ;)

My house is Decked out GALORE this Christmas Season! and boy oh boy ~ Let me tell you, it was SOOOO much fun creating some new goodies this year and puttting out the fun decor I got last year :)
This is my NEW Christmas Banner I made yesterday! I used my Cricut Machine to make it and I LOVE the way it turned out. I was lucky enough to get a last minute seat that opened up for a CRICUT class at the scrapbook store on Saturday. So I learned lots of new tricks and got to know my handy dandy machine so much better and lucky me... I won a new cricut cartridge in the raffle drawing in the class :) YAHOOO!!! I couldn't believe it! I never win anything!

I chose the word BELIEVE because I think there are so many out there that have forgotten the true spirit of Christmas. I need to be reminded that sure we can believe in Santa but we must remember to BELIEVE in Christ. He truly are the reason we celebrate CHRISTMAS! We can rejoice in Jesus' birth, his life and his example and his sacrifice. He made it possible for us to live again! I BELIEVE this with all my heart and this knowledge brings peace to my soul!

Ok back to the TOTAL CUTENESS you are looking at ;) I wanted to stick with Red and Gold with a hint of green since it is in my formal living room! The pictures really don't do it justice! It is very sparkly and shimmery! I LOVE the glittered bells and the berries in the corners. I just LOVE IT!!! I want to do this for a living! I am SERIOUS!!! I have to figure out HOW i can do that....hmmmmmm :)

My Christmas tree is pretty much the same GLAMOROUS Tree as last year. I did add some new gold glittery ribbon and more red polkadot ribbon. & I added some new red glittery ornament balls too! LOVE IT STILL ;)

More views of the front room! All the same as last year...except the banner of course :)

I added this new cuteness on my side table. You know I HAD to fill my Apothecary jars with ornaments and Berries...I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF! I even tied a bell to my lamp. It is the little details I absolutely adore :)

I glammed up my red pantry cabinet. I used my Cricut again to cut out NOEL LOVE IT! I added candy to my cute skinny apothecary jar. IT IS TEMPTING though :) And lots of berries on the light and hung some festive candy canes too :) it isn't be best pic of the light, but you get the idea.

~THE KIDS TREE~
I couldn't help myself, but I HAD to help my kids out a tad with their tree this year. I think it needed some new ribbon and ornaments this year! I also added a few glittery bells! The tree looks way cuter in person :) you'll have to come over and see what i mean ;)

I added some PIZAZZ on top of the entertainment center. I would love to get all new stuff, but I need to save some $$$ for Christmas :) so I got creative and went to town!

I did give my old Garland an update this year. I originally made it 10 years ago. It was a "COUNTRY CUTSIE" style Christmas garland... i should have taken a before pic. It had little painted wooden charms and country style fabric strips tied onto the branches. Oh the garland matched that santa who is sitting there... you get the idea! I think it is still cute just needed updating so....I took it all off and added sparkly ribbon and ornaments, berries and glittery bells and VIOLA.

~Christmas Garland Makeover a SUCCESS :)~

Here is another pic of it with my camera at a different setting. still cute!

With the other 2 apothecary jars I had...I put in some snow and pine cones and bells and peppermint sticks. It's good! But I am always on the hunt for something better. Who knows, It might have some new treasures in it before Christmas :)

Oh Yeah....The FRONT DOOR Wreath and Garland. I added new red ribbon to it! Although it took a beating in last night's CRAZY Rain & Wind storm. I should have taken a pic yesterday before the storm, it looked a bit better to me...oh well. It still looks good, but in person :)

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I can't wait to see all your decorating ideas :)