The 1 year milestone approaches!!!

   Call me dramatic, but I always greet September with a "gulp!". Maybe its just habit from past school years, maybe its the fact that the sunny weather is on its way out, or maybe its my realization that more than half the year is gone and I still haven't touched half of my "to do this year" list. This year it was a little different...September brought with it the reminder that my baby girl was growing up way to fast and that soon I would have to think of her as my 1 year old toddler. Also, it brought reality back as I had to start seriously thinking about what I wanted to do with work as my Maternity Leave was ending. Two very big things happening in this one month! 
   Although the fact that PJ is growing up and turning one is kind of sad...its more exciting. I can't believe that at this time last year I was eagerly (and nervously) awaiting our Baby L's arrival. Now, just a short year later we are still getting to know our ever changing little bundle of fun. In one year she has changed so much and changed our lives so much! But, I will leave this sappy-blogging for a little later on this month when PJ actually hits that big Number One mark! 
   Since PJ has the very exciting fact of being born only a short 15 days after her cousin Kiera, her Aunt Danielle and I decided to throw them a joint "friend's" party. Danielle came up with the theme "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and I think it turned out quite well. The weather was supposed to be beautiful when we planned the party...but as soon as we sent out the invitations it changed to rainy and cold weather. Even with the dreary weather, we had a very fun time inside celebrating these two little munchkins!

PJ was a little wary of everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her (as was Kiera) and didn't crack a smile the entire time.

She also found the caterpillar sign attached to the front of her high chair to be VERY interesting and quickly destroyed it with her inquisitive fingers.

The cupcake was very new to PJ but after a little prodding she enjoyed it immensely (as you can see in the pictures!). 

What is this?!!?

Look Mom!

Face Plant!! :)

Yummy!

Watching Kiera to see how it is done...

:D Digging in!

The finished product! 

Here's a quick look at some of our very amateur decorations...I think it looked great though :) It was definitely fun to have a theme for the party! 

The cake and drink table. 

The chairs for our very hungry caterpillars!

The food table (each item is something that the very hungry caterpillar ate in Eric Carl's book)

Our attempt at being creative with a caterpillar cake (the drinking boxes turned out really well though!)

The favors (little "butterfly" goodie bags!)

Our balloon caterpillar!

Some of the party guests! We had quite a turn-out! So fun!

Finally...the two birthday girls! :) 

   What a fun day! It was a lot of work preparing (and cleaning up) but so worth it! PJ will only have one 1st birthday! On that note, not sure if we'll go "all out" for her next birthdays ;)! 

11 Months Old!

   Someone is quite excited to be 11 months old!!! She was such a little ham during her 11 month "photo shoot". She wouldn't sit still and just kept giggling. At the end, I literally had to hold her down and then take my hand off of her at the last second just before snapping the picture. Using this strategy I was finally able to get an "okay" shot of her on the chair. She is definitely going to give us a run for our money (and sanity) once she starts talking and walking/running!! 

   At 11 months PJ has grown quite a bit. She is crawling so fast! And she gets into EVERYTHING! One of her favorite pastimes is to empty off my shelves or out my cupboards. I spend quite a bit of time each day following her around and cleaning up after her. One positive result of this is that I have started de-cluttering my house! The less things there are...the less things she can scatter. She is talking quite a bit...always following me around and "chatting" away. I have started to just respond to her as if I know what she is saying and we have quite the conversations. I had to watch myself during the past couple of weeks as we have had a plumber working in our house and I didn't want him to think I was crazy! 
   PJ is a lot of fun. She and I can spend quite a bit of time each day just laughing and giggling. She is very ticklish under her arms and on her belly. She loves her feet and will spend quite a bit of time just holding (playing with) them (and maybe sucking her toes!). She also HATES things on her feet...this Winter is going to be difficult trying to convince her to keep socks on. She plays so well. She can entertain herself with some blocks, a puzzle, or a bucket of little toys to sort through. She loves her Daddy (Dada) and gives him BIG hugs when he comes home from work. She sleeps well during the night and late into the morning (9AM wake-up). All in all, she is a wonderful addition to our family and a lot of fun to have around. If we could have all little PJ's we could easily "handle" a tiny army of children :). We LOVE our PJ! 

Sometimes you just need to go outside and swing...

 

This is what pure and utter excitement looks like! Love our little girly so much :)! 

   

And then there was Summer...

Wow! I can not believe that the whole Summer has flown by so quickly! I thought I would be good this Summer and keep up the blogging...but I guess that didn't happen! We have had such a great Summer. We went camping multiple times (5 in total). We spent the Canada Day long weekend camping with a bunch of friends at Sibbald Point. Then we spent a weekend with Mark's family at Pinery and from there we headed to my Mom's family reunion at Cadigan's Camp (a cottage/campground). The week at Cadigan's was a lot of fun but I had to enjoy is "solo". Mark had to head back home to work so PJ and I spent the week ALONE! Not really alone as I had my parents and my older sister helping out quite a bit. It was a great week spent with my relatives (some even from the West coast!). The next camping trip we enjoyed was an extended long weekend with our best friends Ken and Tara Tammiga at Sibbald Point. This time we took the boat and spent some fun hours on the lake! We also enjoyed late nights and great talks :). We also enjoy the time we spend with that great couple! Finally I spent the week before Labour Day camping with my second older sister and PJ (once again without Mark!) at McGregor Point. The rest of my family joined us on Thursday or Friday to enjoy the long weekend, family style. My family has made it a tradition to set aside the Labour Day weekend for the "VanGrootheest Camping Trip". Its also such a great weekend and there's always lots of hiking, game playing and eating involved :). After all this camping we can definitely say that the trailer we bought earlier this year was a good purchase which we put to good use! 
   We also enjoyed many get-togethers with our friends and families throughout the Summer. There were BBQs, Company Picnics, birthday parties, campfires, and date nights. One of the more frequent date nights were the nights spent playing Kanasta with Ken and Tara (best friends + Kanasta = fun Summer nights playing past midnight...whoops!).
   During this Summer PJ has grown so much...nine, ten, and eleven months! She looks older, acts older, crawls better, and plays better. So much fun! She has also showed us that she has a personality and a temper...which will be fun to deal with in the coming years :S. As Mark said this past evening, "might be time to go get some of those parenting books!". Haha! 
   All in all this has been another Summer full of wonderful blessing from our Almighty God. I can't believe that PJ is almost 1 year old and that my year of Maternity Leave is almost up! I am looking forward to this Fall (I love the cool weather and fall colors) and know that God is with us!! 

Morning playtime in Mommy's bed with some fun cousins!

Eating breakfast while Grandpa reads. Enjoying a beautiful sunny morning at Cadigan's Campground.

Nighttime bottle before bed...all cuddly.

I love that these two are so close in age...great friends in the making! They got quite familiar with each other this Summer!

More playtime!

This is our set-up at Cadigan's Camp...by the end of Summer Mark and I had it down to an art! 

Cuddles with Daddy (both sleeping!). So sweet.

Giggles!!

PJ's newest passion - emptying Mommy's shelves. :D