The Hytonens

Family Pics

2010-08-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

Are you shocked? I am! I had pretty much written off this whole blogging thing, but after taking nearly a year off I decided I would get back in. Mainly I was inspired by our family pictures we had taken last week. So if you have been wondering what we look like, here you go!

2!!!

2009-11-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

On Monday Jackson turned 2. During the day we went to the zoo and then to the kangaroo zoo. That evening we had a nice family party here at our house. Jackson was over the moon with excitment, his reactions were priceless. Here he is blowing out his candles...make sure you watch until the end.

Everytime he opened a present he was gasping and yelling, he loved it all! It was so fun, and makes us super excited for Christmas. Here he is opening his "big choo-choo".

DISNEY WORLD!!!

2009-09-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome time at Disney World. It was Gus, Jackson and I...plus Gus' parents, my parents, my sister Dana, and my brother Doug and his family. Here are the highlights:

I guess I should explain the lame sling. I had an indoor soccer game the night before we left and I hurt my elbow really bad. Considering I couldn't straighten my arm and that we had met our insurance deductible...I figured I better check it out before we left. So 6 hours before we had to leave our house for Disney I headed into the ER. The x-rays didn't show any fractures but the joint was swollen, which usually indicates a fracture. So worst case: it was a fracture and best case: it was a bad sprain. Because the doctor was unsure, he said it had to be treated as if it was a fracture. So for the first two days of our trip I was in a full splint and wrap. After two days or so it was feeling better and my range of motion had improved so I figured it was just a sprain. It is still a little sore now and pretty bruised, but doing much better. It definelty put a damper on the first few days of the trip though.

Anyways...ackson loved it. He loved the water parks, the boat rides (Pirates of the Caribean and Its a Small World), the safari and loved all the little kid rides. He was really excited to see the charaters from a distance but freaked out a little when they got closer. One annoying thing was he got way attached to his binkie and asked for it all the time. So 3 days after we got home we took them away. It has gone surprisingly well and I wish I would have done it a LONG time ago.

All in all it was a great trip!

Open for Business!

2009-09-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

After a lot of hard work and an equal amount of self doubt I have finally launched an etsy shop! Check it out, and tell a friend!

www.denisehytonen.etsy.com

Be Warned...

2009-09-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a picture-a-thon of a post, but I have a lot to share. August was a great month which started out with an awesome birthday thanks in part to a huge birthday surprise from Gus. A new DSLR camera, the Nikon D60 which I love! The day after my birthday I started a photography class which taught me a lot and was a lot of fun.

August also started with South Weber Days. Jackson and his cousins loved the parade, especially the candy. I was nervious that Jackson wouldn't understand the concept of grabbing the candy, but he is my son after all, so he did great.He crashed in the car on the way home with a sucker in his mouth.

The evening after the parade they had activities down at the park.

We also went to the Davis County Fair with our neighbors. Gotta love free family activities right? They had a petting zoo and small carnival rides which were both a hit with Jackson.

Jackson loved it so much we went back that weekend with Gus.

We go to the Treehouse Museum about once a week because Jackson is always asking for the "choo-choos" and the "chows" (cows).

And lastly, Gus has been playing softball again (he has played on at least one team every summer since we met). However his season will be cut short this year because he is having shoulder surgery on October 1st. His dad is playing on his team this year so its been fun to watch as a family. Here is Jackson with his cousins.

Thanks for hanging there, hope you weren't bored to tears. The most exciting news of all is that we leave for Disney World in 10 days....CANT WAIT!!!

Summer Fun!

2009-07-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

We have had a great summer so far, but I cant believe that it is almost August already! Here are some highlights of the last month or so. One morning I took Jack and Rusty to the duck pond to feed the little ducks, which they loved. These two are best buds and Jack totally idolizes Rusty.

We play in the backyard a ton...I spend a lot of my day pushing kids on swings.

Gotta love the diaper plumber's crack.

We went to the zoo yesterday as a family. It was super fun and I love that Jack recognizes the animals and gets excited to see them. He especially loved the carousel.I love summer and I hope the next month is as good as the last two have been!

Flaming Gorge

2009-07-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July Holiday my whole family (even Dana flew in from Hawaii) went camping at Flaming Gorge. It was an awesome trip and we had a great time. Here are some highlights:

Gus and I (Jackson was asleep in the car)Nate, Devon, and Rusty...how cute is little Rusty with his hand on his mommy's face? Oh...and because Devon hasn't really announced it yet, I will: she is 5.5 months pregnant with a girl!!!

Jackson and his dad.

While the guys fished, we all hung out on a dock.

Titan, Rusty, and Brody got a little excited about the water and got their clothes all wet so they hung out in their unders.

Doug and Melissa's youngest, Diggy, who definelty won the best camper award. This was the face is made basically the entire trip.

Hanging out at the camp fire enjoying some smores.

My parents trying to figure out how to play a game on Dana's iphone.

Jackson telling us to get out of "bed" so we would take him to the playground that was across the street from our campground (which was perfect!)

It was a great trip and super fun to spend time with family. Happy Birthday America!!!

It's been awhile

2009-05-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

When I first started this blog it was so exciting and I couldn't wait until I had something to post about. And now it is starting to feel like such a burden...does anyone else feel the same way? Well anyways, it has been awhile so here are some highlights from the last month or two of our lives.
Gus and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in March, so to celebrate we planned a weekend get-a-way to Park City in April. Due mainly to my fear of leaving Jackson overnight it turned into a family get-a-way, which actually turned out great and I am glad we brought him. Jackson loved the condo, and especially loved the shower and huge soaker tub. He kept walking into the glass shower door because he couldn't see it...funny and sad. We spent a lot of time and too much money at the outlets, swam, went for walks, went site seeing, and ate a ton.
This was the view from our bed...too cool.

Jackson is now 18 months and full of personallity. He recently decided that it would be super cool to have an attitude and LOVES the word no. You know how on cartoons they ask the viewers questions, like Mickey Mouse asks "do you want to come inside my playhouse"? Well Jackson even responses to that with a solid, non-waivering "NO".

My sister-in-law Melissa and I took all 5 boys to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. I felt like all I did was yell their names and constantly count to make sure we hadn't lost one. But it was a lot of fun and the boys loved it. Somehow we got them all to sit in one place to get a picture of all 5 grandsons...arent they too cute? I just love these boys.

I had a great mother's day. I recently started playing soccer again so I got new soccer cleats and flowers. Here is a picture of Jackson and Grandma Russell. My poor mom...everytime we go over there all he does is brings her book after to book to read.
Jackson absolutely loves to play outside. First thing he does every morning is go find his shoes and bring them to me. Then he goes to the door and pounds on it. So needless to say, we have been spending a ton of time outside.

Here is our recently finished sandbox which provides hours of entertainment.
So there is a snapshot of the last 2 months or so of the Hytonen family...thrilling isnt it?

Easter

2009-04-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope eveyone had a great day and weekend. We spent Saturday going to two different Easter Egg Hunts. Jackson did better than expected and actually got what was going on and enjoyed it...even though he only got 2 or 3 eggs at each hunt. Here are some pictures from our first hunt.

Here is Rusty, who is an egg hunt expert, giving Jackson some pointers.

Next we headed over to Doug's neighborhood for our second hunt of the day. We got there a little early, so to keep Jackson away from the eggs we hung out at the playground.

Easter was a great a day. I got a new calling at church, I am the Young Women's sectretary, so that should be fun. Here is Jackson's Easter Basket (which he got after church). He is obsessed with playing outside, so I got him some toys for his soon to be finished sandbox.

Then we headed over to my parent's for dinner and the best egg hunt of all. The kid to egg ratio was much higher ( 4 kids, and there were at least 125 eggs...way to go Grandma and Grandpa!).

The weather outside is....

2009-02-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

Constantly changing!!! About a week and a half a ago we had a huge snow storm. We got at least a foot of snow in about 5 hours...it was rediculous. And there is something about South Weber that causes us to get way more snow than anyone else. Here is the tree in out front yard...I think it looks so cool covered in snow:
And this is our back/side yard. Those are trees behind the swing set, not bushes. There was so much snow, the trees were bent over to the ground.
Gus taking a break while shoveling the steps.
Jackson absolutely loves being outside no matter the weather.
Doesn't he look cute in his snow bibs?After being buried in snow, we were blessed with a few days of nice, warm, sunny weather. I have been so grateful for the nice weather...both Jackson and I get cabin fever, so it has been so nice to be able to get outside.

We even made it to the park. All of the parks in our neighborhood are still buried in snow, so we went to the duck pond in Layton with our nieghbors.

I usually dont really mind the winter, but now that I have a child, I just cant wait until spring so we can be outside more!

All about me!

2009-02-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

So because Jackson is pretty much all I blog about, here is a post all about me! As promised, here are some pictures of the bag I made:It was so fun to make. I love the feeling of accomplishment after taking pieces of fabric and turning them into something you can use and like! I had a bunch of fabric left over and I made a wallet using a pattern my friend showed me online (thanks Cambria). The flowers on the front are already starting to fray, so I am trying to come up with anther way to make them.
It needs some work, but now that I have made one, and taught myself how to install a zipper I am going to try again.

This past Saturday Devon and I "competed" in a team triathlon. We were actually on different teams but we both did the swimming leg. We were both so nervous which was silly because it was just for fun and we only had to swim 500 yards (10 laps (down and back=one lap)). I actually surprised myself and swam it about a minute and a half faster than I thought I would and ended up finishing 6th out of 30 swimmers.

So there you have it...a post all about me!

Melissa's Devil Tag

2009-02-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

My sister Devon tagged me on her blog so here it goes...

1. Go to my documents/pictures.

2. Go to my 6th file folder.

3. Go to my 6th picture.

4. Blog about it.

5. Tag 6 people to do the same.Is it bad that I was hoping it wasn't a picture of Jackson? It just seems like he is all I ever blog about so I was kind of hoping this tag would give me inspiration to blog about something else. Oh well. So this picture was taken on October 1st. That was actually the day that Jackson took his first step. I love that this picture really captures the chubbiness of his cheeks.

I tag Marguerite, Kirsten, Cambria, Chennell, Rachel, and Lisa.

Quilt Update

2009-01-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

Because I know you are all dying to see the progress I have made on my quilt...I thought I would post an update. Here are some pictures of the completed top.

It turned out kind of busy, but I like it anyways. I am currently in the process of quilting it using my sewing machine. Its pretty tricky to do (for me at least) but fun. I also just bought a pattern and material to make a bag/purse...so stay tuned for more craftiness in the future!

My little Jackson is growing up way to fast. As you can see in this picture, he LOVES to take baths.He has discovered how to climb on top of things and will climb onto anything he can get his little knee up onto.

And he loves stuffed animals. We went to Ikea a couple of weeks ago and they had this bin of huge hippos by the door as you walk in. We handed him one as we walked in and he bear hugged it the whole time we were there. Then of course we had to buy it considering that Jackson had drooled all over it. Luckily it was Ikea so it was only 7 bucks.

And just because I think it is hillarious...

Going for a ride!

2009-01-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

Since Jackson's birthday was fairly close to Christmas, he didnt really need a lot of toys for Christmas. So we decided to get him something he can use and enjoy this spring and summer, so we got him this little buggy car. He was pretty excited about it and Gus and I were getting pretty tired of pushing him in it up and down the hallway. So I decided that Gus should take him for a ride down to the mail box (we live in a cul-de-sac and the mailbox is about 50 yards away). So here are some pictures of Jack's reaction to his Christmas presents and their little trip.

For my Cousins

2008-12-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

This post is for all of my Russell cousins out there. As usual we had our Russell family Christmas Eve Party this year. In the middle of our annual White Elephant gift exchange game my cousin Tess showed up. Well it turns out that Tess is sporting an interesting new do (a combination mohawk and mullet)...and lets just say that Grandma was not a fan. Here are some pictures of her reaction: The best part of the story involves Grandma's recent memory struggles. While it is really sad that she is having such a hard time with her short-term memory, in this case it was pretty funny. See, Grandma forgot about Tess' hair every 5 minutes or so and we got to relive her reaction to Tess' hair-do over and over again. "Who is that??? That's Tess??? What happened to her hair???" Over and over again! Dont you wish you all could have been there? Maybe this will serve as an incentive for all of you to come next year...its always a good time!

Thanksgiving in Texas

2008-12-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year, we traveled to San Antonio to visit Gus' sister and her family. Gus' parents came with us and we had a great time. Jackson did great on the plane and loved looking out the window .

We visited the Alamo (Gus is in the green shirt).

The Riverwalk Gus' sister practically lives across the street from Sea World. While we enjoyed Shamu's show, Jackson took a little snooze.Feeding the dolphins.

My Quilt

2008-11-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in an earlier posting that I had joined a quilting club. We are learning a lot of quilting basics and it has been really fun so far. I am discovering that I may not be maticulous enough for really complicated quilts, but I have really enjoyed doing our first quilt which is pretty basic. Here are the fabrics I picked out for my first quilt:And here is my first block. Like I said, it is pretty basic, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

One Year Later!

2008-11-14T21:19:00.002-08:00

Last Sunday, my little Jack turned one. Its hard to believe that he is already one, but at the same time I cant remember life without him. We had a fun family party at our house to celebrate his special day. The happy birthday boy in his birthday hat.The cousins checking out the presents
Happy Birthday Jackson!!! We love you!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty eventful Halloween this year. Well not really, but we definetly did more this year than we ever have before.

First, lastweek end we went to the "Boonanza" at my mom's pool:They had this cute little train ride there for the kids. Unfortunetly Gus' legs were too long and he couldn't fit...so I got to ride with Jackson.

Titan the priate, Rusty the fireman, Brody the Jazz player, and Jackson the lion with grandma and Batman!

Then on Thursday we went to our ward's Truck or Treat.Here is Jackson the lion with his best friend Liam the dragon.

Then of course on Friday we went Trick or Treating:

I was so proud of Jackson, he was such a trooper in his costume...that was until Halloween night. I really wanted to get some cute pictures of him in our front yard playing in the leaves, but unfortunetly he had clearly had enough:
All in all it was a great holiday. I cant wait until next year when Jackson will actually know whats going on.

Great Grandpa

2008-10-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Jackson's only living Great Grandpa (Gus' Grandpa on his mom's side) is in town from California.

Pumpkin Patch and Aunt Dana

2008-10-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

This past week my sister Dana came to visit. Its always great to see her and we always have fun when she is here. Unfortunetly Jackson is going through a painfully shy stage, so he took awhile to warm up to him. While she was here we went to a pumkin patch with her, my mom, and Devon and her family.

Domestic Engineer

2008-10-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

So I have offically been a stay-at-home mom (I prefer domestic engineer) for two whole weeks . Before quitting I had all these grand ideas that once I was home full time my home would constantly be spotless, I would serve a gourmet dinner everynight, Jackson would soon be reading novels and speaking several languages...you get the picture. Unfortunetly none of that has happened. Regardless, its been great to be able to spend more time with my little boy. I did join I quilting club, I figured quilting is about as domestic as you can get.

My Next Career: Comedian

2008-10-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Jackson makes me feel like I am the funniest person around. It doesnt usually take much to get a laugh out of him, especially when he is tired. Here are some videos we took of him proving my comedic genius.

Too cute!

Nerd!

2008-09-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

Jackson loves to grab at Gus' glasses. So the other night we decided to let him wear them. Doesn't he look like such a cute nerd?

My New Adventure

2008-09-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

Exciting news....as of September 26th, I will offically be a full-time stay-at-home-mom. I cant wait. I am going to miss all my friends at work, and I may actually eventually miss work itself, but I cant wait to be with my little boy full time. Here are some recent pictures of my little buddy.

1st Haircut!

2008-08-21T18:05:00.001-07:00

Today Jackson had his first haircut! I just couldn't handle seeing hair hang over his ears for one more day. We just went to the Great Clips up the road, and the lady who cut his hair was super nice and did a really good job. Jackson did great too, he didn't cry and only fussed a little. He looks so much older now!
Before, looking pretty shaggy:

After, looking so handsome:

On the Move!

2008-08-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks a lot has changed. The biggest change is that Jackson is on the move. For the whole month of June and half of July he was so close to crawling it seemed that he was constantly on the verge of crawling and that he was going to start crawling any second. Then all of a sudden in the middle of July...it happened. Now he is everywhere and into everything. Its so exciting to see him progress and grow, but it certainly has changed our lives!
Another big milestone Jack recently hit was his first tooth! You can kind of see it in this picture (its on the bottom on the left).
The one next to it is getting really close to cutting through also. Why cant they come at the same time? It sure would be nice if you didnt have to go through the sleepless nights twice and you could get two over with at the same time.

FYI

2008-07-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

My sister Devon has started a blog...but hasn't really announced it, so I have decided to do it for her. Here is her blog address: http://nateanddevon.blogspot.com/

Gus and Gus junior

2008-07-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

Gus pointed out that my father day's post did not include any pictures of he and Jack...so here are some recent pictures of my two boys.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jack. I think it captures his personality perfectly.

Our summer so far

2008-07-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

I love summer! I have to admit that since I finished school and got a "real" job...summers just havent been quite the same as they once were. But another perk of motherhood is that somehow it has made summer seem more summerish (yep...I just made up a word). Here are some pictures of some fun stuff we have been up to.

Last month we went with our friend Cambria and co. up to Willard Bay. We got Jack this fun little floatie...which he enjoyed!
Gus and I met playing softball on a team his work put together, and he still plays on the same team, 5 summers later. Here is a shot of Gus and his dad who now plays on the team.

We have been swimming a bunch of times and we usually go with Devon and Rusty.
Jackson letting us know he is ready to go:

Fathers Day....a little late

2008-06-22T20:09:00.001-07:00

For Father's Day, Titan and Brody got my dad squirt guns...so we spent a lot of the afternoon hanging out in the backyard laughing at them. Here are some pictures of the boys playing in the backyard.

Swimming

2008-06-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I took Jackson swimming to the pool where my mom works, and they have these cute little jumpers for little kids. Devon, Rusty, Melissa, Titan, Brody, and my mom all came too. Jackson doesn't really get swimming yet, but he doesn't mind it either.

I love Rusty cheesing it in the backgroung of this picture.

Finally...

2008-06-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

After living in our house for almost 6 months without internet, today we finally got it. Until now I have had to update my blog while at work...sneaking in a post here and there, always on the look out for my boss to walk in. So hopefully now my posting will be a little more frequently!

6 months!

2008-05-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

I cant believe my little baby is 6 months old already! And he is huge!!!! He weighs 21 pounds and is 28 inches long. Its amazing how fast they grow.

Mother's Day

2008-05-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

One of the many perks to motherhood is that there is now a new holiday on which I get presents and special treatment! Thanks in part to President Bush, for mother's day I got an Apple I-Touch (gotta love that economic stimulas...we are just doing are part to help the economy!!!)

We had dinner at my parents house (my dad even cooked) and then went to Gus' parents house to visit.

Me and Jack, my mom and Titan, Grandma Russell, Devon and Rusty, and Melissa and Brody.

Gus' mom, Jack, and me.

While the present and special treatment was nice, it really is nothing compared to the joy that my little Jack brings me. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I have been so blessed to be his mom.

Friends

2008-04-23T08:11:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my three best friends from High School came over with all their kids. Here are some pictures of the kids.
Averi (4, Katie's), Lilly (2.5 Marguerite's), Rylie (2, Kirsten's), Ethan (3.5 Kirsten's)

And here is a picture with Jackson added in. Marguerite also has two more..twins boys that are 4 months old.

Rusty

2008-04-23T07:55:00.001-07:00

Every Monday morning I get to watch my nephew Rusty. Here are some cute pictures of him playing in my yard. Gotta love that red hair!

My brown eyed boy

2008-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

Both Gus and I have brown eyes so I was pretty sure that all of our kids would have brown eyes. In the beginning his eyes were dark blue, but now they are definetly brown, and they couldn't be cuter.

Dreaded Yard Work

2008-04-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our new house in January we had never actually seen our yard due to the rediculous amount of snow we got this year. As the snow starting melting, I got more and more nervous about what we would find under all that snow. What we ended up finding was a thick layer of dead leaves. Our yard has a bunch of trees and one really big tree in the front yard. Well no one had raked up the leaves last fall so they were all there waiting for us.

Here is the result of several hours of hard work on Gus' part. Just the front yard resulted in 25 trash bags full of leaves. Our yard slopes and has a ton of rock retaining walls...its going to be a lot of work, but has a ton of potential.

2008-04-02T10:11:00.001-07:00

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Jumperoo!!!

2008-04-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

For Easter we got Jackson a Rainforest Jumperoo. He didnt really get it at first, but all of a sudden the other day he started jumping like crazy.

Easter!

2008-04-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our family Easter. It started out with an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard (not much of a hunt really, considering they were just scattered out on the lawn). Then the boys played with the bubbles they got in their baskets.Here are all three boys, who are taking a break and eating some candy.
Here is Titan cheesing it up for the camera with some Easter candy in this teeth!
Here is Rusty trying to figure out how to do the bubbles.
Titan successfully blowing some bubbles.
Jackson and his Easter outfit.

It was a great day spent with family. I cant wait until next year when Jackson can join in on the fun.

Cute Hat

2008-03-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

1st feeding

2008-03-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

It started out good…and got progressively worse! I don’t think he actually swallowed any the first 3 days or so. But he has the hang of now.

4 YEARS!!!

2008-03-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

4 years ago today, Gus and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Bountiful Temple. Its amazing how time flies. So much has happened in our lives, its hard to believe that its only been 4 years. We both graduated from college, we bought two houses (and sold one), changed jobs several times, and best of all...we had little Jack. Things are so great right now: we have a house we love in the perfect location, we both have jobs we enjoy, and we have our little boy!

More Laughing

2008-03-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

Jackson Laughing

2008-03-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

The last week or so Jackson has started to actually laugh. I love it!

My Nephew Titan

2008-02-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

Here is my 2.5 year old nephew Titan saying the alphabet. The other little boy is my nephew Brody, Titan's little brother.

3 month pictures

2008-02-29T08:28:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Jackson I took of him the week he turned 3 months.

Ear Infection

2008-02-29T08:17:00.000-08:00

So Jackson has had a cold for the last week or so. He didn't seem to be getting any better so out of the fear of RSV we decided to take him into the doctor. We figured if nothing else, it would give us peace of mind. Turns out he has an ear infection, so I am glad we did. The real shocking news came as I placed him on the scale. We hadn't weighed him since his two month appointment (he only weighed 10.5 lbs...only the 27% for his age) and he had definitely had a growth spurt since then so I didn't really know what to expect. 17.5 lbs!!!! He gained 7 pounds in a month and a half. Crazy right?

Jackson gets a bath

2008-02-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

The First One!!!

2008-02-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

So I have finally broken down and given into the pressure to start a blog. My main reasoning for starting a blog is to be able to show off my little Jackson...the cutest little boy who ever lived. He is now 3.5 months old and I have a-gazillion pictures of him, so I'll try to post some of the older ones.