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!!!!~