Jensen Matthew Furniss

Jensen was born on Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 6:36 pm. He weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 18 inches long.

After denying my Doctor's offer to induce me on November 23 (10 days early) I decided to go with induction offer number 2 for December 1 (2 days early). We arrived at the hospital at 2:00 pm and the doctor came in at about 3 o'clock to get things started and just over 3.5 hours later I was happily holding my sweet baby boy.

The next day Matt brought the kids to meet their new baby brother. They all took turns holding him and adoring him. Jensen definately doesn't lack arms to hold him.

What a perfect early Christmas present! Welcome to the family Jensen Matthew Furniss.

Halloween 2010

Our little "Cinderella", "Knight" and "Gypsy" had a wonderful Halloween. Ben celebrated Halloween by having a "Rock Band 3" party in the garage.

The results are in.....

The pattern continues....we got a sneak peak of the next Furniss boy! He must know he is a future soccer player because his feet would hardly hold still long enough for the ultrasound tech to snap of shot of the foot.

I love to see the cute profile shots and the fingers and toes.

When we got back home we gathered the kids together and I said something like this:

Is it a boy or a girl?? It's one or the other...We hope you'll be excited to have a baby brother! There were some cheers and some "I knew it" and from sweet little Sydnee...tears. She really wanted a sister. But I'm sure she will be in love with her brother when he arrives.

Now on to the search for a name. Boy names have always been harder for us to agree upon. Any ideas??

Thoughts on "Ultrasound Day"!

Today is the day we find out if our family's pattern (boy, girl, boy, girl...????) continues or is broken. I am so excited to get a peek at this baby I can hardly focus on anything. I thought it would be fun to put down the kids thoughts.....


Mitchell wants the baby to be a girl so he can remain the "baby boy" of the family, but he thinks it is going to be a girl.


Sydnee wants the baby to be a girl and has been firm on her opinion that it is a girl since we told the kids that I was going to have a baby.


Ben wants the baby to be a boy, but he has no clue if it is a boy or a girl.


Makenzie thinks it is a boy, but she wants it to be a girl (at least I think that was what she meant when she said she thinks girls are a little bit cuter than boys).

I've made it to 11:30. 3 more hours until appointment time. Just crossing my fingers that Matt makes it there and that the baby shows off his or her parts.

Mother Daugher Modesty Fashion Show

Makenzie's Activity Days group planned a Mother Daughter Modesty Fashion show. Each girl brought home and invitation that told us what type of clothing we were to come wearing. Makenzie and I were assigned "Evening Wear". I initially panicked...I fretted for a day or two....felt wronged when I learned my friend and her daughter were assigned lounge wear.... but once I got an idea of what we were going to wear I started to have a better attitude. It turned out to be such a fun activity. I had a great time spending the evening with my beautiful daughter.

Benjamin masters Fur Elise

When Ben first started taking piano lessons two years ago he was trying to figure out how to play the first little bit of Beethoven's Fur Elise. Matt told Ben that when he learned how to play that song perfectly, he would pay him $100.00. We recently had to pay up on that bet.

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Ben was thrilled when his teacher bought him the music and began teaching him how to play it. Ben amazes me on the piano. He picks up things very quickly. I live vicariously through Ben's ability to play the piano. He is currently perfecting Scott Joplin's The Entertainer. I can't wait to see what his teacher has him play next.

Mitchell the Soccer Star!

Mitchell has had a blast playing soccer this season and we have had a blast watching him play. He looks forward to his game all week long. He asks me what time his game is going to be. He doesn't appreciate it if I'm late getting him to his game. A couple games ago we were a few minutes late. When we got to the field he jumped out of the van and ran over to his game as fast as he could. By the time I got over to him, he came up to me in tears. They were playing a team with the exact same jersey that day and so I think when he got to the field he assumed they were still warming up, so he ran onto the field and his coach, who has a very loud coach voice, yells at Mitchell and tells him to get off the field because he is not in right now. He soon got his chance to go out and play and ended up scoring 4 goals that game. Needless to say, last week he was on my tail all morning telling me what time it was and that I needed to get dressed so I wouldn't make him late. He also reminded me all week long to bring the video camera to tape his game. Matt got a lot of footage, including the following clip of the goal he scored.

He is very serious about the game. He plays very intensely. He wants the ball and he goes for it.


I am so glad that he has had so much fun playing this season. He has his last game coming up on Saturday and I'm sure he will be anxiously awaiting next fall when he can hit the soccer field again.

We now have a teenager in the house.....

Ben had his 13th birthday last month. He was lucky enough to have his birthday fall during the week of spring break, allowing him a day of relaxation on his birthday. I took him and a group of his friends to Jump On It and then brought them back home for pizza and cake. I made him a very delicious German Chocolate Cake. We are not a cake eating family, we never finish a whole cake, we finished every last bit of this cake though.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Last weekend we left the snow-capped Rocky Mountains behind and enjoyed a wonderful 3 day weekend get-a-way in beautiful, sunny, San Diego celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary.

One of our favorite highlights of the trip was the morning we spent in La Jolla. The weather was great and the scenery was breathtaking. We watched the seals enjoy a sunbath on the rocks.

This is our self-portrait by the San Diego Temple. The temple was closed for maintenance while we were there. I would have liked to have gone inside but this was as close as we were able to get.

Even though we had the opportunity to sleep in, we never did. We were up before sunrise both mornings. Here is a picture of Sunday mornings sunrise.

We had such a good time enjoying the sun and each others company. I told Matt I could definitely get used to escaping the Utah winter each January. I'm hoping for Hawaii next time (maybe in another 16 years?).

This is the only other picture of us together. I offered to take a picture for some people in exchange for them snapping a picture of us. I hope the picture I took of them turned out better than this, (oh well....beggars can't be choosers I guess). Thanks to our wonderful friends and family for watching the kids (there were 7 different people throughout the 3 days who were involved in watching the kids) you guys are the best!

Soccer Birthday Party

When I asked Mitchell what kind of birthday party he wanted, right off the bat he said a soccer party. So we scheduled the church gym and sent out invitations to 12 neighborhood friends. On the afternoon of the party 11 of the 12 friends arrived to celebrate. It started out with treat bag decorating and soccer ball dot to dot.
Then the games began. Here are some shots from the balloon heading game.

Next up, balloon pop relay. The kids had a blast with this one. It was lots of fun to watch how they all managed to pop their balloons there was some belly flopping, stomping and good old fashioned use your teeth. We played twice and each team had a chance to win. Perfect!

Crab soccer was a favorite, though their arms got tired pretty fast.

Some of the other games not pictured were; soccer ball bowling, yellow card tag, and a scrimmage was held as well. The kids worked up quite an appetite and enjoyed some pizza and juice.

After pizza came the presents......the kids were all excited for Mitchell to open their gift.

Grand finale was soccer ball cupcakes and ice cream cups.

I am not sure if we sent the kids home really tired or really hyper. It was a crazy party and I couldn't have done it without this guy.....
Matt has been coaching youth soccer for the past 8 years....he could coach a soccer party in his sleep :).

6 years old!

Mitchell celebrated his 6th birthday last week. We had Grandma Dorothy, Papa Gene, Aunt Paula, and Uncle Dean over for "cookie pizza" and ice cream. He was the star student in his Kindergarten class during his birthday week, which made it an extra special birthday.

Oh my little Mitchell boy I can hardly believe it has been 6 years already. I love your smiling face, your happy laugh, and your wonderful hugs.

A "BIG GIRL" Bed!

A couple of weeks ago Sydnee told me that she didn't want to sleep in a crib anymore and that she wanted a "big girl" bed like her friend Elsa. This is a picture of her first night sleeping in her big girl bed. She loves it so much and wants the sheets straigtened first thing each morning. Doesn't she look sweet, most every night I peek in on this little one before heading to my bed. There isn't anything more precious than a sleeping child. The frustrations of the day are fast erased as I gaze upon her sweet little innocent sleeping face. I love you so much Sydnee girl and I can't believe how fast you are growing up.

"Bonkers" is also quite fond of the big girl bed. This has become one of her favorite napping spots.

On the day before Christmas Eve....

On the kids first day of Christmas Break, we had to find some ways to harness all the excitement that was running wild.

Mitchell spent some time with the Duplos and created a Christmas tree complete with presents.

We kept Makenzie busy making friendship bracelets for all her neighborhood friends.

When Matt got home from work we took the kids sledding. It was freezing cold, but the kids didn't mind.

Sydnee wasn't too sure of her first run down the hill. It didn't take her long to warm up to it though and when we went again the next week she was even sledding down all by herself.

I shot a couple videos while holding the camera vertically, so if you want to see it in the proper aspect you'll have to lay down on your side next to your computers monitor. (You might think I'd never shot a video with my camera before :).