Look Who's ONE!!!

   So, its official. We have a ONE year old in the house!! How did that happen?? It feels like PJ just came into our lives and here she is celebrating her first birthday. This is a couple of days (weeks) late...but I wanted to share some pictures of her first birthday. Her birthday landed on a Sunday which worked out great for us to have my family down for a fun party. Her cousin Kiera celebrated her first birthday party 2 weeks (fifteen days) earlier so we doubled the party up and had a great time. :) 

   The night before PJ's birthday Mark and I stayed up late and put up some decorations. Mark says that he has never decorated for a birthday before so it was really fun to share this. While we were decorating we just kept repeating how amazed we were that the year had flown by so quickly! 

Her special "birthday chair". She was quite enthralled with the balloons! 

Happy Birthday!!!

My handsome man helping with the decorations...broken wrist (hockey accident) and all!

Her birthday presents all laid out so that they would be the first thing she saw in the morning :P! 

   It was really cute the morning of her birthday because she noticed the decorations right away. They were greeted with wide eyes and multiple "oohs!". She was really intrigued by the balloons and found them much more interesting than the presents! 

Checking out the presents but then...

Ooooh! A balloon!!!!

She thought that they were so fun :) It was hard to just let her explore because I was more excited about the presents...thankfully I have a patient husband who held me off;) 

   We soon were able to interest her in the presents but quickly realized that it was quite overwhelming for her to have all new toys. We let her open one toy at a time and play with it for a while. She was so excited!! She plays really well and I think (hope) that new toys will help her keep it up!

Opening a present...

Am I really allowed to rip this Mom??? So exciting!

New puzzles!! Even thought she is only 1, PJ loves puzzles and she is actually pretty good at them. She isn't always able to get the pieces in the right spot...but she is good at matching the piece with its pair!

:) She really loved them! Such a ham!

   After our small family celebration my whole family (minus Kara and her new fiance Tsjibbe (more exciting news!!!)) came down after church to party!! It worked out really well in our little home because we are currently "refurnishing" our dining room table and it was outside drying from its coat of paint. The extra space in the dining room worked perfectly for a play room for all the little kiddos!

I love this picture...all four kiddos playing together (ish). 

So sweet!

All the girls...:) I look forward to many more playtimes with these three girlies!

A picture of the birthday girl...I had bought her this new outfit for her birthday...I think she looks adorable!

"After nap" cuddles with Grandpa...not sure what it is about my dad...but PJ will always sit and cuddle with him for quite a while when he comes to visit :). 

Some more party guests...including my new nephew due to arrive in early December! Can't wait to meet him!! :)

Sitting up to drink her bottle because she can't stand to miss any of the action!

   No birthday party is complete without a cake. I baked a cake (box cake...nothing too special) in the shape of a number 1. Then iced is bright pink and put sprinkles on it. Definitely a little girl's cake (Mark and I joked that it looked like Type 1 Diabetes!! :S). We had two candles on it...one for PJ and one for Kiera. 

Singing "Happy Birthday". 

Attempting to "blow" out the cake. :) They needed some help ;)

One very proud Daddy and his little baby girl!

She sure does like cake:)!

   It was a wonderful day filled with family and friends and lots of giggles from our little birthday girl. She got spoiled and I think we will be able to pull out "new" toys for a while to keep her attention. The following week we celebrated her birthday with the Lodders at Mom and Dad Lodder's house. She was spoiled there too and it was another really fun evening! Still in a bit of shock that we now have to say "1" when people ask us how old she is!!! Crazy how time flies :)!