Priceless:

...being able to walk to the park at least once a day all week, after 6 months of winter.

Vancouver

Gibb had the dental conference in Vancouver again this year. And I got to go with him without kids! (Thanks Mom!) Last year we went and took our kids, which was fun since I got to hang out with my friend Emily all week-end. But it was great having a little break, getting to relax and do some shopping.

I went to the Vancouver Temple open house with Emily, it's SO beautiful inside!

We met up with some friends Jordan and Alli Cahoon on the way there. It was fun to have another couple to hang out with. Alli and I had an adventurous day together on Friday. We got majorly lost (thanks to my great navigating skills) trying to get the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. When we finally got there she locked her keys in the car...with her baby still in his car seat. Fun times! But it was really cool in the aquarium a friend of a friend gave us a behind the scenes look at some beluga whales, sea otters, baby sea lions and jelly fish. It was so cool!

On Saturday my brother Sami took the ferry over from Victoria for the day. We went out to Capilano bridge. It was raining, but so gorgeous.

Then we went out to this awesome Thai restaurant, the food was SO good!

It was such a fun little trip, and I don't think our kids even noticed we were gone! They had way too much fun with Grandma Kathy.

Spring Cleaning to the Max!

One thing I love about having my mom come visit is that she is so good at helping me get organized and finish all the random projects on my To Do list. And we have been going crazy getting stuff done. In the 8 days that she was here this is everything we got done:

Finally finished off decorating the kid's rooms!

Unpacked and organized a few boxes of frames and decorations from the basement.

Finished unpacking most of the boxes from moving (yes we still hadn't finished unpacking yet)

We cleaned out, organized and rotated toys in all the toy bins and in the basement.

We re-organized both of the kid's closets and clothes that are in bins in the basement.

Unpacked and organized a craft room in the basement!

We organized this front closet. We don't use it for coats (obviously) because I need it for storage for movies, craft stuff, puzzles, games and toys that I don't want the kids getting into without my supervision. It was SUCH a mess before, just imagine everything in here piled up with no rhyme or reason and that's what it looked like.

Sewed pillows for the couch!
(Now I really need to get some pictures up on the wall)

Sewed curtains for the living room!

And sewed a floor pillow for the living room.

Oh yeah, and tied a couple of tutus,

and had preschool at our house this week.

It's been so fun and I love how everything has turned out so far!

On the list for the next few days:

• finish unpakcing the LAST box in the basement (which is actually a bunch of Gibb's stuff that I'm not sure what he wants to do with)
• finally hang up pictures on the walls
• make a quick one night trip to Edmonton and do some power shopping
• relax and go to bed early
  

It's so much work getting everything done, and I can't believe how long it's taking to unpack and get settled. But I LOVE how it feels to have the house done and be organized! (how many times have I said that word in this post?) Now I feel like I can function normally again.

FINALLY

We've been in our house for 7 months and I finally just finished decorating the kid's rooms. I kept them pretty simple (compared to how I did Jayna's baby room). But I've still had a couple of things left to do in each of their rooms for a while now (really simple things like printing off a new picture), but I just never got around to it. But now that my mom is here I have been super motivated! So they're finally done and I love how they turned out!

KEPLER'S ROOM

JAYNA'S ROOM

Now that's done it's time to finally start on the rest of the house!

Aurora Borealis

A couple nights ago the northern lights were so bright and Gibb managed to get a couple of decent shots. It was the first time I've ever seen them really bright like this and it was gorgeous! Our street still has lots of construction so we just drove down our street less than a block and could see it really well since there are no houses or streetlights. It's amazing to see it in person and see the lights move across the sky. Now you all have more incentive to come and visit us here in the North Pole ;)

Easter Weekend

Fun times at the Fitzner house! We're so glad that Grandma Kathy is here and got to celebrate Easter with us.

We had our friends the Pratt's over to decorate (and eat) Easter eggs with us. Kepler loves their little boy Cohen, who is only 6 months older than him. They're too little to really play together yet, but they are buddies in nursery, and Kepler loves saying "Cohen, Cohen, Cohen!" whenever we see them.

Decorating (and eating) cookies!

Easter egg hunt

Jayna just sat down on the couch like this and started eating her candy.

Nothing gets kids excited like bubbles! Especially when they've eaten too much sugar and haven't left the house all day.

Jayna showing off her new jammies from the Hill's. Thank you, I don't know how to tell you how much she LOVES them!

On Sunday we had Jayna's Sunbeam teacher, Paul Entrikin, and the McAteer's over for dinner. Super yummy and super fun! It always feels more like a holiday when there's a lot of people around.