Babies First Christmas!

Yet another first for the Saulnier Family, Cate and James first Christmas! We had a very nice Christmas this year, it was so exciting to see David get into the spirit of the holiday. He was so excited that Santa was going to come and bring him presents. He kept asking for a blue present. It took us a long time to figure this one out. We think he may have seen presents on TV that were on different color boxes with ribbons on them and he wanted a blue one. We tried to explain to him that that was just the box and the present was inside. It took him a while but once he saw some toys, he got the hang of it!

One of David's favorite gifts was an M&M machine from his aunt's. David's greatest love is M&M's, I dare say it may even beat out his love for Mommy and Daddy...

David with his M&M's

Here is our Christmas tree and you can see that Santa had made his visit. David got a hockey net, a microphone and a trampoline, he was a very good boy this year. Cate and James likewise got spoiled with a playhouse, a sports center and a ball popping machine. We have to now close in our screen porch to make room for all these toys!

David entertained us Christmas morning with his new microphone and sang several rounds of Jingle Bells. The only time he switched it up was to sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus. Of course that prompted him to want cake....

The Polar Express

One of David's favorite movies is the Polar Express. He got the movie last year and loves to watch it, especially because he is fascinated by trains. This year we took David for a ride on the Polar Express and he loved it!!! We had received our golden tickets in the mail and David loved to show everyone who came over. He would hold the ticket and jump up and down screaming "I'm going on the Polar Express!!"

We set off on a VERY snowy night to get our train. If David hadn't been SO excited to go, I really thought about turning around. It took us almost an hour and a half to get there, due to the bad weather. But alas we arrived and David was so excited! We went to get in line with all the other families and David was so excited to see the train, he yelled out "Look Mommy! A puprle commuter train!" David was absolutely right, it was a MBTA commuter train, I just hope that no other little children overheard him and had their dreams crushed that it wasn't the real Polar Express...

David wore his pajamas, just like the boy in the movie did, and of course his boots too! Here is David holding his ticket, waiting for the conductor to punch it. He had a M&M cookie (his favorite!) and some hot cocoa. We rode to the North Pole, while they read the Polar Express story. After our visit to the North Pole, Santa boarded our train and gave everyone a present. It was a bell, just like the one in the movie! David was so happy, and it was well worth the adventure!

Our first Gingerbread house

Every year I would contemplate making a gingerbread house. They always looked so nice and very festive for the Christmas season. This year I decided to go for it and get David involved. During the winter, projects are a very welcome thing as they entertain him while we are stuck inside for so long. So, I bought the kit and was very eager to get going! David was all excited, he loves to help Mommy, especially if there is candy involved. You are looking at our wonderful work of art above. If I do say so myself, it came out pretty nice! So here is the first Saulnier gingerbread house..... and maybe the last! The reality is, David lost interest 5 minutes in. He didn't like any of the candy because it wasn't chocolate.... and it was a huge pain to make! That icing should come with a warning label, my wrist is still hurting a day later.... I digress, all in all in was something I have wanted to do for quite some time and if you ask David, he helped Mommy make the whole thing and he will tell you, "isn't it beautiful!" So it was definitely worth it and we will be doing one again next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we had a very nice Thanksgiving! It was one of the nicer ones I can remember. We had some special guests join us from NY this year. Daddy's cousin Adam came along with Tony, to join us for the weekend. We started by watching the parade in the morning. David was very excited to see all the balloons and the bands. He especially like all the drums! Nana and Uncle Greg joined us for a wonderful dinner and then Mommy and David went to visit everyone at Debbie MC's house. We got to spend a lot of time with Adam and Tony and they made this Thanksgiving very nice for us. We had many things to be thankful for this year, especially our newest family members, Cate and James. In a very troubling time for our country, we were so thankful for our family, our health and just being together!

Happy Halloween!

This year was a fun Halloween because David actually understood the concept of trick-or-treating. It was a little worriesome in the beginning as every time we asked David what he wanted to be, he kept responding "I just want to be David." He finallly agreed to be a dragon/dinasour, becuse of his favorite character from Baby Einstein, or as we like to call him, the Blah guy.

Once we actually got the Blah costume, it took another couple of days to convince him to actually put it on.... Once we got it on, he wanted to wear it all the time. When we were practicing what to say when we went trick-or-treating, we would ask him and he would respond "Blah!" He finally got it down and off we went! We hit a few of the neighborhood houses and then made a special trip to Nana's and then to his cousin's. The little pumpkins did make one visit to our next door neighbor's and then we returned them home to greet trick-or-treaters with Daddy.

Thanks to our good friend Beth D., we had the cutest little pumpkins in the patch this year! These costumes were just too fitting for them both. I think this may be the first and last time that I can dress them alike!

Apple Picking

In the time honored New England tradition, we set off apple picking this year on Columbus Day. Daddy was away for the day so Nana joined us on our adventure. We took a lovely drive up to Honey Pot Orchards in Stowe, Ma. It was a really nice day, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. As an added bonus, our good friend and godfather to James, Josh was there on a work outing. It was nice to be able to share our trip with him and Erika too!

David, not too sure about this whole apple picking thing...

He soon got the hang of it and was excited to climb the ladder!

James and Josh

Do you know how hard it is to try and get 3 kids to at least look in the same direction?? Nevermind the smiling part!

Brothers

It is really nice to look back at some of David's old pictures and see how much James looks like him. James is starting to wear more and more of David's old clothes so when I see pictures of them both in the same outfit is very very funny to me. Here is one of the boys with lucky the leprechaun. We had dressed David in the for St. Patricks Day when he was almost 7 months old. We had James in it the other day and he is almost 8 months. They are right around the same age in these pictures. I used to think they looked exactly alike and now that I see these next to each other, they are starting to look different from each other.

Happy Fall!

We have finally seemed to have settled into our fall schedule. David started back to "school" at the beginning of September and is so happy!!! He loves his car rides to and from with Nana and most importantly he loves being back with his buddies. He tells me often that he goes to school with his best buddy Will. Going to Curry has been so wonderful for David and we are so happy that he has this opportunity. I am a little embarrassed that David has become a little bit of a clown at school. One day his report said that he had everyone laughing at snack time. Every time David took a bite of something he would say "that's delicious!!" It made all his friends laugh so he continued to do it for the rest of snack! He has also taught all his friends "Blah!!" He learned this off one of the Baby Einstein videos we have. They have a puppet that sticks his tongue out and says "Blah!" David loves it and thinks it is hysterical, so he has passed this on to his friends at school and this is how they greet each other!!! It's only just beginning.....

The "Blah!" face

The babes are also doing great! Cate has finally caught up to James in the rolling department and they are all over the place.... It's almost time for the gates to go up!! They have been trying lots of new fruits and vegetables and loving them all. I have been fortunate enough to find the time to make all their food, which has so far been a great experience! They are starting to display more and more of their personalities, this is such a fun stage! James is all smiles, all the time! Cate is coming around too.... she started off a little fussy, but now she is really warming up and smiling all the time too. They both think big brother is the funniest person in the world! David will jump around and sing and they both just belly laugh at him, it is such a joy to watch!!

They both love playing in the exersaucer! Mommy loves it too, they can't get into too much trouble this way!

Childrens Museum

David had his first trip to the Childrens Museum earlier this month. It was a birthday present from his godmother, MB. We had so much fun (Mommy got to go too)!!! We took the purple commuter train in to Boston, which was a big highlight of the day. We got into Boston and took the short walk to the museum. David had a great time playing with the bubbles, the balls, he was on TV with Arthur, played with the boats, climbed up this huge maze thing (which scared the crap out of Mommy....) flew an airplane and so many other things. We had a great day and it was such a fun experience for David. Thanks again MB!!

Waiting for the purple commuter train. We thought we should stop in Southie so David could hang at the corner with the boys, maybe play a few games of dice.... We nick named him Sully for the day!

Flying the airplane... a dream come true!

Playing the PVC pipes like they do in Blue Man Group

Hanging with his buddy MB! ( I was having camera problems and David was having problems sitting still...!)

Baby Girl

This is too cute, I couldn't pass up posting this picture of our baby girl.

Mini Me

It is always surreal when you see how much your child looks like you. Everyday when I look at James I feel like I am looking at Daddy as a baby. Clearly I didn't know Daddy as a baby but I have seen many pictures and there is such a strong resemblance that we sometimes call James, mini me. Here are a few pictures that show shades of Daddy as a baby.

3 year journey....

I thought it would be nice to show our big guy through his past 3 years. Although he is only 3, he has had quite a journey already!

August 28th, the day David was born. 2lbs. 2oz.

1st Birthday


2nd Birthday

3rd birthday this year

3 Years Old!!!

I can't believe my baby is three years old! Although technically he is not my baby anymore, David will always be so cherished because of his special journey. This year David had a "Cars" birthday. He is totally into Lighting McQueen and all his friends. You would be amazed at all the "Cars" stuff out there...

So on David's actual birthday we started the day with his good buddies Brady and AJ. They came over for a play date and to start the day off right with chocolate cupcakes...

We then celebrated with his cousins Noelle, Bryan, Morgan, Kristin, Bridget and Jackson. They came over to play in the back yard and share in some cake and ice cream. David always has so much fun with his cousins and with chocolate cake to boot, he was in heaven!!

Swan Boats

Today we took a trip to the Swan Boats. This was David's second time riding them, but I am sure he doesn't remember the first trip. It was special because he went on with Bingy and Pa this time. Mommy stayed ashore with the twins, I think if I had dared to take them on we would still be there unloading....

David's first trip on the Swan Boats in 2006

Today's ride. He had so much fun with Bingy and Pa and he loved seeing all the ducks!! Thanks Debbie MC!!

Happy Birthday Pa!

We celebrated the last birthday before David's. Pa's birthday was today and David again was in heaven! I think he is getting a little too used to all these birthdays and especially the cake! We made a special stop at a bakery on our way home from the beach to get, of course, a chocolate cake. We had a nice dinner that included corn on the cob. David ate the whole thing right off the cob!

The beach with Will

We made yet another trip to the beach today. This time it was to see David's buddy Will, from Curry. David and Will have been in the same class together since they were infants. It is too funny to see them together, I believe they share their own language. They scream and laugh whenever they see each other. They play great together and Will is the onlyl friend that David seeks out to play with. Whenever I mention school and his friends, David always says "and my buddy Will."

When we first asked the boys to get together for a picture, this is what they did...

Story Land

We decided this year that David was old enough to visit Story Land. So we packed up the car (again) and headed up to Glen, NH. We made the trip just Mommy, Daddy and David. Cate and James stayed home to have a little one-on-one, or two-on-two, with Bingy and Aunt Bobbie (BTW, thank you so much!!). The ride was great, David slept for a good chunk of it and then, thanks to Coco, watched Cars the movie the rest of the way. We stopped and had lunch at this very cool restuarant with trains running all along the top of the wall.... David was in heaven! His love for trains made this the perfect place for him to enjoy his lunch.

The view from the balcony where we stayed.

We then met up with our good friends the Crowe's, who we were visiting Story Land with. We had this amazing condo that was in the mountains. We had incredible views everywhere we looked. I am just glad it wasn't winter, I would not have wanted to drive up there in the snow.

The boys getting ready for a fun day at Story Land after a good nights rest... (yeah right!)

We had a great day and a half at the park, going on many rides. Some of the rides we went on were, the Bamboo shoots (a flume ride), the teacups, the antique cars and of course David's favorite, the train!! We had such a wonderful time and can't wait to go back next year!

David driving the antique car

Mommy and David on the train