A little Christmas Cheer from the Zito Family!!! (you may want to pause the music)

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Halloween and Happy birthday!

What a great Halloween. We really did it all this year, we trick-or-treated, trunk-or-treated, went to a great Halloween party, celebrated a birthday and ate way to many treats! Nothing but fun!

The tourists!


Our sweet little Tinkerbell!


Our beautiful blue fairy!

Lilly finally turned 4! She was very excited for this birthday because all her friends were four so she could not wait to be four herself. She is a wonderful little girl and a great blessing. We are so grateful for her outgoing personality, her loving little spirit and for her ability to make Rhett and myself laugh even when we are hoping mad.

Lilly we love you so much, you are a joy to have in our family!

Costa Rica!

My Addiction!

So, last summer when I was pregnant with Ruby I formed an ugly addiction! Every night before I would go to bed, I would fix myself a big bowl of cold cereal. You need to understand when I'm pregnant I am always hungry. It doesn't matter what time of the day, it doesn't even matter if I've just finished a seven course meal I am always hungry! So, during my nine months of pregnancy I fell in love with my nightly bowl of cold cereal. Now I know your thinking that's not so bad, it's OK to have a bowl of cereal every night when your pregnant but I CAN'T give it up! I have been unpregnant for over a year now and I still need that nightly bowl of cereal! I have tried very unsuccessfully to stop consuming every night but those cereals taunt me from my pantry! All I can think about is the cold milk and the sweet crispy taste of my favorite food. When I go grocery shopping I find myself spending more time on the cereal isle than any other isle. I will buy five, six boxes at a time and go through them in what I honestly think is record time. So, it is what it is! I really don't think I can change what I am, a ravenous carb loving cereal consumer! So much for the remaining pregnancy lbs I just haven't been able to lose!

Marley the Kangaroo!

This last Sunday Rhett's sister Crystal invited us over to meet her new friend Marley the kangaroo. Marley belongs to (now hang on to your shorts this may get confusing) Crystal's sister in laws mother in law. The mother in law, from what I understand, took the baby kangaroo from a kangaroo farm and will raise her till she is about eighteen months old and then send her back. Sweet little Marley gets to spend her time at a nursing home where she helps to cheer up some of the patients there. They just let her hop up and down the hallways and interact with the people. We had such a great time with her! The girls loved petting her soft fur and watching her hop around the yard. It was awesome! Thanks Crystal for the great experience is was a blast!

Summer Fun!

Summer is my favorite time of year. I love the hot weather, the warm beautiful nights, I love that it doesn't get dark till ten and the fact that there is always something going on, family barbecue's, vacations, swimming, rodeo's you know what I mean. It's such a busy time of year but I love every minuet of it. I always feel a little sad when kids start going back to school and the scheduling and rhythm of everyday life start to kick in again. Luckily this summer we were able to have a little back to back vacationing so my cup is feeling quite full right now. We went to Lake Powell for a week with Rhett's family, came home for three days and left for Jackson Hole with my family. Needless to say we have ended the summer with a bang and I am almost tired of packing and unpacking (Honestly I could probably go for one more week)! So, here are some pictures of our wonderful trips. We had a blast in Powell and Jackson, both such beautiful places with ton's of fun for the taking!

Lake Powell

Lilly and her cute cousin Alexis. They were trying to pretend to be asleep but funny Alexis couldn't stop smiling!



Lil and Alexis on the tube. They were so funny! They chanted faster faster the entire time and Lilly was in the thumbs up position the whole time, you know to get get the point across that she really did want to go faster. We couldn't get her to hold on to the tube with both hands. Fortunately after she was thrown from the tube she decided that maybe she would hold on with both hands!




Here is brave little Lilly water skiing for the first time. She did a great job and held on with all her might! The picture above this is She and Rhett. After she fell Rhett jumped in to help her. He was so proud and so was she!


Here we have Rhett showing off his water skiing skills!


And Rhett committing the ultimate crime!


And cute little Ruby happy as a lark, probably because she got to go mostly nude the entire time we were there. Who needs clothes anyway!

Jackson Hole

Once again Ruby! very cute!


Lilly and her posse guarding the stairs.


Ok, seriously the ugliest but funniest big foot I have ever seen! Honestly! take a good look at his face he is almost smiling! The funny part was that both my girls were totally freaked out. Especially Lil, she wouldn't even look at him!


My wonderful dad helping Ruby on our walk around Jenny lake.



Myself and my girls outside the Jackson lake lodge! Beautiful!


And lastly, Lilly, who had this pretty little butterfly land on her shirt!

So there it is our last hoorah! Lots of fun and lots of memories for the Zito family!

It's your bithday!

We have had a week of birthdays this week at the Zito household. Ruby just turned 1 on the 31st of July and My wonderful husband Rhett turned 28 on the 4th of August. We had a party for Ruby on Saturday night with our families. Ruby was a blast to watch. She loved her cake and presents along with big sister Lilly who was more than willing to help her with all the birthday fun; blowing out the candles, opening the presents, playing with the presents and anything else that looked fun. Luckily Ruby was a little overwhelmed by it all so she didn't seem to mind the extra help.


Ruby's actual birthday was the same day as Rhett's sisters wedding. Megan being the wonderful aunt that she is had a cake made in honor of Ruby for the reception that she got to smash and eat. It was so fun and it was such a cute cake before Ruby smashed it!


My wonderful husband turned 28 yesterday, as I mentioned above. Now I don't want to get to sappy here as I know there are few people who like to read somebody else's sweet nothings. But I want my Rhettster to know what a great husband and father he is. I really appreciate his desire to work so hard for our family and for the effort he makes to balance work and home. He puts up with my craziness, makes me laugh a lot, and is quick to tell me "babe you look hot" (meaning, wow my wonderful wife you look smashing today, in Rhett language) even when I feel or know that I don't look that "hot"! I love you, always and forever!

Sweet Land of Liberty!

So, I had to do two posts to get in all our Independence day fun. I guess I had to many pictures and being the not so computer savvy gal that I am I couldn't get them all on one post so there ya are. Anyway, we had a fantastic Fourth of July this year. It was great to be with family and friends to celebrate our freedom and the blessing it is to live in such a great country. We began the celebrating by running the 5K in Kaysville. Most of my family participated in it. We had a great time! Rhett was suffering from shin splints so he volunteered to sleep in with the girls and met me at the finish line!
No! we are not flexing our muscles. There is nothing like a good whiff of the pits to let you know if you ran a good race or not and I tell you what ,we ran a good race!

We then made our way to the Kaysville city parade. We were at the end of the parade route so we had to wait a while before the fun started. Lilly, who has been known to show zero patience when she is excited was thrilled when she saw and heard the band making their way towards us.

Now I know this picture looks like Lilly is trying to rip Lian's are face off, But they were having a great time! Such good friends!

What's the deal with my kids and straws!


Ruby was not a fan of the fire trucks as you can see by her expression.

This last picture (hard to see, I know) is my sister Haley. She is the one in the peach dress in the middle. She was in the parade because she is miss Kaysville Fruit Heights and she is headed to compete in the miss Utah pageant this week. So, to my amazingly talented and motivated sister, Good Luck! I love ya and wish you happy swimwear strutting and a quick mind for those interview questions!

Fishlake

This past weekend we went to Fishlake where my parents have a cabin. It is a place I have been going with my family since I was born and a place I love taking my own girls. It is so beautiful! We try to get up there twice a year if we can and every time I go my mind is flooded with memories of waking up very early to go fishing with my dad, playing on the dock with my brother Sam and daring him to touch the eyeballs of the fish we had just caught (gross I know but for some reason I found touching fish eyes oddly satisfying when I was young)and taking walks by the lake with my family. This last trip was especially great because my entire family was there which is something that just doesn't happen very often any more. It was so nice to be with all the people I love the most! So I just want to say that I am so grateful for my wonderful family and the short but fabulous moments when we are all together. I feel so blessed to have parents who I love and respect and a brother and many sisters who fill my life with memorable moments and lots of laughter! So, here's to my family! I love you all and I look forward to our next reunion!








Ok, I know this picture of Rhett is kind of random but he looked so cute cooking breakfast and I don't post a lot of pictures of him because he's really not in very many so here he is! Love ya babe!

To minivan or Not to minivan!!

It is no secret for those who know me well, that I am not a fan of the minivan. Never have been and I would like to say I never will be. But a tragic thing happened this week. Rhett and I were discussing what kind of vehicle we would like to get someday when we have child number three ( this is not a hint in anyway). I have always thought I would like a Tahoe, Yukon, Expedition, pretty much anything but a minivan. When I think minivan I think frumpy mom vehicle! As I expressed my views to my wonderful husband he decided to play devils advocate and tell me all the reasons we need to get a minivan and most of those reasons were money related. While I couldn't disagree with him on the money issues my argument, i felt, stood strong; they are ugly and I don't want to drive one! Plain and simple. Unfortunately I couldn't leave well enough alone. I decided to get on line and find out for myself how much money we would really be saving by purchasing a frumpy minivan verses a lovely SUV. I was shocked at the results I found! Not only could we buy a brand new van for the same price or less than a used SUV but the difference in gas mileage was sadly something to cry about. Why? I am still asking myself this question? I was blissfully ignorant and now I am horribly educated! The reality is, now I can't seem to justify the purchase of an SUV when I know what kind of money I would be saving driving, yes that's right, a frumpy minivan. I have always been a very logical person and now that quality is biting me in the rear, Hard! So, my request to all my wonderful friends out there. In the future if you see me driving a minivan can you all just pretend it's a beautiful Tahoe or Yukon or Expedition, anything but a minivan. Also if it wouldn't be to much to ask, just remind me how cool my minivan is (even though it's not) and maybe just once tell me how totally awesome I look driving it (even though I won't)! Thank you! Your great friends!

Grumpy Lilly! Oh how we love her!

Last night we took a little trip to thanksgiving point to attend the tulip festival! It was a little cold and the tulips that were out were beautiful but because of the cold weather we have been having there weren't a ton of flowers. Fortunately my family knows how to have a good time with or with out flowers ( well except for Lilly that is, she struggled with her happy attitude last night)!

This is about the happiest picture I was able to get of our little Lil, and I think that was just because Lian, my little sister (for those of you who don't know my parents adopted a little girl from china a little over a year ago. She turned four in January and she and Lilly are great friends!)was encouraging her to be happy for the moment.


Here we officially have grumpy Lilly! I was trying to get her to take a picture with Ruby and myself and she was not having it. I had to chase her down and drag her over to our spot to get her to even stand by us.


Next is me trying to tickle and tease her to get her to smile which ended up in tears and a bad picture, as you can see!

Finally the end! After I gave up on a having a cute picture with my girls, Lilly walked away and found a quite spot to sulk. She stayed there by herself for a while and wouldn't look at anyone. My sister Angie suggested we throw her in the water to loosen her up a bit but I had mixed feelings about that tactic, wasn't sure if it would have the positive effect we were looking for. In the end I think Lilly did have a good time. She seemed happy to tell Rhett about it all when we got home (Rhett couldn't come because he is finishing up his last week of school! Hooray!). And Ruby and myself had a great time!

Zoo Time!

We went to the zoo on Friday with my friend Betsy. It was her little girls birthday, so we had a little party with the animals! We had a great time! There were a lot of active animals out which was great. Usually when we go the animals are all asleep or hiding but we got a lot of action this time and the weather was perfect! It was nice to go do something outside for a change. It makes me excited for better weather to come. Hopefully someday!

Lilly and the humongous tortoise!


Cute little baby giraffe


Ruby staring at the giraffe's. She loved them!


Lilly getting a little tiger love!