Christmas Program

The boys Christmas program was at school today. They did such a great job, well, James and Nathan sang really loud and did all of the hand motions, but Max only stood there with a frightenend and confused look on his face. Nathan was Joseph and James had a part in Rudolph, yelling out the little parts in between, note the enthusiasm......you can hear his cute little deep voice. James is in the right top hand corner with his Christmas hat on and Nathan is in the middle with a white thing on his head as Joseph. Good stuff.

Christmas time!

James, Ava and Max heading to the Christmas program at school

James is helping us pack by decorating boxes and pretending to be a "robot".

Thanksgiving

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving at Gg and Popsters new house. Yummy! The kids had a blast, it was so great having so much of our family together.

The boys bundled up at Island Park in Sarasota

Stairsteps

Future home of Freundship Marine (and Freunds.....)

Our latest project!

Halloween

Unfortuntely Max had a horrible stomach bug all day on Halloween. We did take the boys around the block, but had to limit the sweets when we were finished trick or treating, not an easy thing on Halloween!

The official pumpkin carving..... The pumpkin James picked from the patch was more like a gourd and smelled like a cucumber inside, nice!

Our little artist

Well, James hadn't drawn in a while, but suddenly our little artist is back! Check out the "music book" he decided to make one day, I was shocked! I'm not even sure where he has seen musical notes, maybe he'll be our little musician (like Uncle Eston.... sorry Aunt Allyson....you got the singing talent.)

Oct update

Okay, its been a REALLY long time since I caught up on my "blogging".

Max is getting so big, he says complete sentences and isn't repeating himself like a parrot as much any more (thank goodness! he was like a little broken record!) He wants to be as big as James and Nathan and tries to do everything they do. The good thing is, he is starting to use the potty, all on is own, without me pushing him (potty training has not even been on my radar).

We have really enjoyed having Gg and Popster close, its so nice to spend time with them, their new house is beautiful. Plus, they are constantly bringing us dinner and cooking for us, I could get used to this!

James is doing great in PreK, he is such a smart boy. His class is mostly girls which seems to be a good thing for him, he hasn't been in time out yet, unlike last year! He is still as stubborn as ever, but is so much fun. He loves walking around making up silly songs and still loves to draw and color.

The weather is absolutely fantastic, I love October in Florida, although I do miss fall in TN....

Business is going great, the guys are very busy. We have been looking at some properties for the business because of the great buyers market right now, but nothing has worked out yet. We haved ridden the short sale roller coaster and the deal died, we have made an offer on a foreclosure, but we are happy exactly where we are and just thought it was worth a shot in this market.
The good news is our little house is looking great, we just put down more sod, mulch, shell and pavers in the back, now we can sit back and enjoy for a while!

Mom, Allyson and I just got back from a Women of Faith convention in Tampa this weekend. A group from our church went, what a great weekend. I can't wait to attend next year.

Little Gasparilla Island

For those of you who haven't heard the story, here it goes:

We decided to rent a beach house for Mom and Dads 40th Anniversary, I mean 40 years, we gotta celebrate big for that right?! Well celebrate big we did.... we had a few bumps in the road, a scorpion in the house, a fire in the middle of the night and a sprained knee on Dad, but other than that a fun time was had by all! At least we came away with a lot of unforgetable experiences!

Little Gasparilla Island

James, Sarah and her spider crab
Uncle Eston helped the boys with their sand creations

Max and Will are ALWAYS up for a snack, or two....

What a gorgeous sunset view from our beach house!

Sunday afternoon boat ride

Uncle Tuney let us borrow his center console for Mom and Dads Anniversary week in Little Gasparilla, we took in on a test run the weekend befor with the boys, what a fun little boat!

For Allysons birthday we surprised her at Corks with the hat and headed to the comedy club, Uncle Rob and Aunt Cheryl were visiting, what a fun night we had! This is us with the owner of the comedy club, we made a lot of friends that night.....

While in Tn we got a chance to visit my cousin Nick, Krisha and Preston. We even got to see Leslie and J'Lyn too! The visit was WAY too short, but it was great to see them. The boys had a ball jumping on Prestons trampoline.

Nana Katys 90th Birthday

Mom and I took the boys to the nursing home to celebrate Nana Katys 90th birthday. James and I made cupcakes and decorated them, she loved seeing the boys, what a treat for us all!

TN Trip August

Look at those handsome boys!
We had a great visit to Chattanooga with Eston, Tammi, and Will also a special visit from Patrick, Melody and baby Eva. We all met at the Childrens Museum and then headed downtown to the Mellow Mushroom for some pizza and cold beer, yum! Chattanooga is such a beautiful city! Eston and Tammi just bought a new house and are in the process of moving, its so close to downtown, such a great area.

TN trip August 2010

The boys and I took a trip to Standing Stone State Park while in Tn, we had a great time skipping rocks in the creek and hiking around in the woods it was better than any playground!

Summer baseball

This summer we attends lots of Marauders games with the kids, what a great way to spend a summer night!

Max's 2nd Birthday

We kicked Max's birthday celebration off with a trip to the Bradenton Speedway for some 4th of July racing action, unfortunately the event was rained out after only a couple of races..... On July 4th we had everyone over to our house for a birthday celebration before heading to the marina to watch fireworks (apparantly Max is TERRIFIED of fire/fireworks/etc. We found this out the hard way, on the poor guys birthday.......

The boys enjoying Max's new swing

Jim made a kick butt Monster Truck cake for Max, he LOVED it!

Dominican Trip

We just returned from the most amazing trip to the Dominican Republic for Popster and Gg's Anniversary and 70th Birthdays. It was so great to spend time with Jims side of the family, having everyone together is always so much fun. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving and hillarious family! We were spoiled all week, the staff was amazing, they waited on us hand and foot and were the friendliest people I've ever met. The boys had a great time, James got to do some serious snorkling, first with Uncle Rob and Aunt Cheryl and then with Mommy and Daddy. He is amazing with his snorkle set, we are so proud of our good little swimmer. He got to go horseback riding one day with Caterina, there was a kids club at the resort that did all kinds of cool activities, like lunches with "superheros", kids parties and pool games. Max was pretty clingy to Mommy, maybe just from being in a different environment but was a pretty good sport all in all. (He is now back to his independent self) He loved the music they played at the pool, especially during Bon Jovi's water aerobics, Max would stand there and dance. The boys were like little fish, in the water all day and slept really good at night. They loved the attention they received from the staff everywhere we went.

Here are some of the pictures, I'll be posting a lot more soon.

We are slowly adjusting back to the real world of cooking our own meals and getting our own drinks, geez.

The boys really seemed to be enjoying themselves

Mommy and Daddy too!

Max helping Bon Jovi out with the morning water aerobics routine. Yes we did participate in "the fabulous, sexy Bon Jovi's water aerobics" from time to time, I just couldn't handle it every day.... too much of a good thing.....

Dominican Trip continued

Chris, Mikey, Elyse, Robbie and Max with Jeremiah

Caterina, Michele, Jim and Max

Daddy and his mini me

Our Villa in the Dominican

The Villa we stayed in was unbelievable, we were treated like Kings and Queens.

The men enjoying their daily cigar on the veranda, what a life.

A pool party Freund family style, check out those mountains in the background, breathtaking.

Dominican Trip continued

Me and Michele enjoying a Margarita in the cold tub

Robbie, Mead and Michele

Now this is what I call a nap!

Dominican Trip continued

I'm afraid we've all been a little too spoiled this week.....what do you think?

Tennessee fun!

While we were in Tennessee the boys and I had a little time to enjoy the wonderful city of Chattanooga with Eston, Tammi and Will. Chattanooga has a great downtown and there is always something fun to do.

I love this picture!

The boys outside of Ben and Jerrys, Max and Will are hillarious!

We had a chance to visit the Childrens creativity museum, but it was closing, no big deal... all uncle Eston wanted to do was play in the water section which they let us do for free.
We will definitely do this again.

Nana and her boys