SPRING FORWARD!!

Although we lost an hour of sleep last night hopefully it will pay off. Little Ben is so full of life and spunk that he has been waking up by 5:30 every day...today it was 6:30 due to the time change...hopefully it will stay this way!

This is Ben every morning pretty much:
"Mommy, Daddy. Where are you?"
Ben/myself; "In here buddy, come in here."
Then immediately Ben is non stop; "down stairs, choc-milk, dinosaurs (Dawn of Ice age), movie on?!" "Ca-mon, lets go, down stairs, choc-milk, ca-mon!"

He is so sweet and energetic and wakes up ready to go and so full of life every single morning. So, recently we just bring his "choc-milk" up at night and put it on ice. At least this way it buys us 3 whole minutes with him -never to fall back to sleep though. Although we are so tired, those are the best 3 minutes of my day and I could not think of a better way to start it!

In lieu of spring, a neighboring town threw a festival called the "Rattlesnake Round-up". I don't think there is much else to tell you about it- considering the name. I, unfortunately had to work Saturday so Ben and the boys popped up the 3rd row seats in our car and headed over there with some friends-and II told him to go ahead and put them in the camo, what better time to wear it right?!.  I here it was pretty big time though; Miss Georgia was there, there was a parade and a "fancy helicopter"! (as Mater says it). Ben says the boys (ie-Ben) behaved perfectly and they had a blast seeing the "nakes" and watching the parade!

Today was wonderful! I was off. We make it to church, we did a lot of cleaning and then Uncle Sam and Melissa stopped in for many hours!!! We played inside, we played outside and had mellow mushroom. We actually got to enjoy our food! The boys were awesome! I talk about how great they are eating lately because you don't understand how stressful it is most of the time. Connor is typically good. He sits there and wont throw a fit to gt up but he is at that phase where he like to throw everything on the floor and insists on feeding himself, but he is an angel. Then there is Ben who usually wont sit still HAS to drink your drink with no help-spills it all over, shakes the table, bangs the table, fights the high chair, etc etc. But he is still so sweet at the same time. He really cannot help it that he has all that energy. It just exhausts us! But things have been looking better! Here are some pictures:

CONGRATULATIONS SAM!!!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!

We were fortunate to make it to Sam's Ranger school graduation this past Friday. Sam graduated with Honors which is amazing...but I am not surprised in the least...I mean seriously, look who is standing behind him!

Little Ben really enjoyed it too. He actually sat through the entire "Rangers in Action" 45 minute demo. Can you believe it?! He was all about it too. Maybe he will follow in Grandaddy's footsteps. He already has army crawling and climbing down to a science.

The rest of the weekend we just played and played of course ate and ate. It was fun catching up and seeing some family again. We sure do miss everyone!

 Like our new extended family? Those were the two sweetest boys ever. They played so well with Ben and Connor.

Here Connor just could not take any more excitement. He passed out on the floor before we cold get him in the car to head home...We got home at one in the am-I guess you could say we made the most of the little time we had together!

POLLEN? BEES?

...IT MUST BE SPRING.

Oh, and today's hi is 85!!! (too bad I sent Connor to school on cords and a long sleeve tee).
What about Ben??? Ya, his turn to be home sick :( Im tellin ya. It is never ending in our house.

But we took advantage of the BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend. We actually had not one but 2 almost whole days together as a family. We initially planned on visiting Will and Cait at their house before the baby arrived and before Will deploys. We were all packed an ready to head out Sat am...but got the apologetic dis-invitation because Cait's water had broken in he middle of the night, and just had to go into labor. I guess we will let you slide ;) Now even more reason to visit!

Sooo, the kids and I walked over to Ben's soccer practice Sat morning instead. Then walked over to our friends house and Ben made us breakfast there then it was a successful nap time and then more outside time. Topped it off with ice cream before eating El Sombrero...first time in a long time that we have taken the boys out to eat. It was a success surprisingly!

Oh, and then Ben and I went on a late date. Sitter came at 8 and we went and had wings and beer then a movie and did not fall asleep! OK the movie was Hall Pass - So vulgar we did not like it at all.

Sunday: Church again. 5 weeks in a row! New record for us :) Ben got kicked out of Sunday school class twice though. Once for repeatedly bumping into a kid-he does this to Big Non lately too, and me actually. And then they said later he smacked the teacher. We are so embarrassed.  I think it has something to do with him being so congested...my theory based on what the ENT said is that his eustachian tubes get blocked and he hears muffled sounds, so maybe he was just frustrated. I noticed he misbehaves more when he is sick. Maybe we need to schedule surgery...

So after church we took an impulsive left turn into the Statesboro Inn parking lot and ate their lunch buffet. OH SO DELICIOSO! Kids were not so well behaved this time but we managed to get out in one piece and all with full bellies...then again successful naps. Ben, yes Ben went to Wal-Mart, I cleaned house and then we all went out to a cook out at park...for me to soon find out that I needed to be at work. OOPS! Must have picked it up and did not write it in my calendar that I never look at anyway.

This week will be a short one for us as Thursday we will be driving across the state to see Mr. Second Lieutenant Sam Freakley graduate from Ranger School! Hopefully we will see Grandaddy and Marmie also. I know the boys will be thrilled to see them again.

WILLIAM THOMAS FREAKLEY JR

Freakley Brother #3 and his wife Cait kept the Freakley tradition alive and brought a healthy Freakley baby boy into the world. Born 2/26/11 around 3:30 pm. William Thomas Jr weighs in at a perfect 7.2 lbs and is 21 inches long. AND congratulations to Cait not needing a c-section-like all the others have been! I believe it was all natural at that! We cant wait to meet him!

Here is a picture from facebook.

NIGHT TIME NANNY FOR HIRE!

I don't even know where to start. Maybe that is why I have not blogged in ages.

I guess I can start by saying the kids do not sleep. If they do then they are up by 5:15 latest. OUCH. They are also now sharing a room so about 50% of the time they are waking one another up. AWESOME. Ben and I are exhausted. A nice thing about this is we have at times been bringing Connor to our bed-like he has NEVER spent a night in our bed. We did this with Ben a ton and it made for the worst nights sleep because he moves so much but sweet Connor on the other hand just snuggles right up.

Work has been going extremely well but I am picking up lots of extra time so I have less me time, that I do not like...but we have that house in Virginia that is killing us :) The kids are still seriously running fevers every other week so I am guaranteed to get a call from day care to get one or the other. I worked today so it was Ben's turn. Connor had a fever.

We decided to stay where we are renting for another year (can not beat the location) so we flipped up the furniture in the rooms. It is like we just moved in. The downstairs master off the kitchen is now a play room and our Dressing room in the morning-still kept the dressers down and clothes in the closet. So much more practical. And now we are all sleeping upstairs. And we still have the guest room with the private bath...come visit...go to the beach!!

The weather has been great lately also. I have walked to get the kids some this week. Ben's place is right across the street-no lie and Connors is about 1.5 miles (if that) down the road. I plan on doing this a lot more.

Ben and I joined the church a while ago, I think I may have mentioned that in a previous blog, so every Sunday this month we have attended "new member" classes. We are getting re-baptized together this Sunday. Exciting :)

Ben is loving his new school-so are we. Today they went on a "field trip". They got in one of those super sized strollers and went to the lake on campus and fed the ducks. They do the coolest arts and crafts there too. Ben is "using his words" way more. But still not engaging in conversation...we are all still looking into this matter. Adenoid removal? Tonsils too? Wait till he is 3??? His school has these Ages and Stages and ASQ's they do. We are in the process of his 30 month one and they will give us their opinion on where he now stands. On an exciting note, I took him out to the soccer field Monday while Ben had a camp and he dribbled around the soccer ball like a champ.

And Connor has been such a joy still except for when he wakes up in the middle of the night. It is pretty simple, just give him milk. And it better be a minimum of 4 oz or you are in trouble...because then Big Brother wakes up, and then you are really screwed. So the weaning thing has been tough. We just keep shoving the bottle in his face to keep him quiet-literally. Why don't our kids take pacifiers? Connor loves doing everything his brother does, so he is a pro on the stairs and we never even worked with him. We are quite impressed. He is also great at getting on the coffee table, pushing chairs to the counter and climbing on them and opening doors. He likes to show you his belly button and to ask for Lita on Skype, to name a few.

Valentines was wonderful. We celebrated Sunday by getting a sitter from 1 until 9:30 and went to Savannah with our neighbor friends. They have 2 young boys also. We walked down town and then went to an oyster roast then to a fancy dinner for desert. It was all so nice and we had a great time.

What? No other pictures! Ya, I'm so behind on blogging I just put them all on shutterfly for everyone to see. YAY!!!

WE LOVE LITA

Big thanks you to "Lita" -my mom, for coming down yet again 2 weekends ago to help me out while hubby was out of town. The kids still had coughs and runny noses and we not sleeping.

 Is Lita down there?

Glad Lita was here to help me with this mess...if it is already every where before it is cooked, maybe is is a sign I should not make spaghetti anymore!

 ...and this mess:

 Who is the "big" brother here?

 Daddy is home!...so glad he is helping ;)

And then thanks again Lita for this past weekend! Ben and I went to a wedding in Nashville and also used it as a weekend get away. We dropped the kids off in ATL and drove on. I would also like to thank my dad and Greg and Carmen for their help too!! I am not sure who had more fun this weekend!


The wedding was of a former player of Ben's back during his Erskine Days. The groom is the one on the left if you are wondering...now assistant coach at Ga. State :) It was super fancy and a very nice hotel-The Loews Vanderbilt. We much enjoyed ourselves. I however had ZERO energy and although I had the snazziest shoes (borrowed from dear friend Lynley-thanks a bunch) in the place, only mustered up the energy for one dance...and that is pretty bad considering who my husband is!

Back home! More pics:

ITS ABOUT TIME!

I realized that I have not even posted a Christmas Post, that is pretty sad. Big apology to all the blog followers! I did, however post tons of pictures on Shutterfly Christmas day I just never made it around to doing the blog. So please check them out!

It has been nuts around here. The day after Christmas Ben left for a five day tournament recruiting trip so down went the tree and we packed up and left. Ben went to Florida and the kids, Lita and I went to Atlanta and Christmas was over like that. We all got back to Statesboro New Years Eve day and hung out with neighbors. In bed by 10:30 and then I worked FIVE insanely busy days in the ER (like we went on diversion one day=no EMS could come because we has a 6+ hour weight time in the weighting room!). I am still recovering.

I would like to do a great big blog brag about my husband. He played mom that week. I think he played it better than me! He kept the house in better order too. Connor was in his day care that week so he and Ben III palled around-and both got sick. Ben was enrolled in a new day care that didn't start until this past week, again-(I will talk about that in a sec).

Then Big Non and I caught the cold and Connor can not shake it. We praying that it wont turn into pneumonia again but it is a nasty cough and he had a fever and was wheezing. I had to call into work twice this week. Ben is out of town again for 5 days, the boys are not sleeping well so mom is not sleeping. Cobb Co. Schools have been canceled all week due to snow that the south cannot handle. So once it was official that schools were closed Friday too, my dad drove my mom to Macon to meet me and I dragged her (ok, she was more than willing-this is Lita we are talking about) down here last night for some much needed help. Oah, and I weigh more than I ever have (other than max preg weight which I'm only 10 lbs shy of that). That has been what is going on.
Here is my mom pulling my double chin back:

Ok. Off the soap box. Here is what is new with the Freakleys:

1.) Ben and I started this book together to put a spark in our marriage. Lets face it, with two young-ins and our crazy schedules and lack of sleep we were putting each other on the back burner. So a friend of his/ours recommended this book called The Love Dare. It has been wonderful and we are happy it was introduced to us. Ya'll need to check it out!

2.) Connor is now a walk-o-holic. He also likes to copy everything his big bro does. From the "choo choo" when playing with Thomas the train to lets-see-how-much-we-can-splash-mom at bath time.

3.) Ben is FINALLY in the day care of all day cares, I think at least. It is on the campus of GSU and it is an NAEYC accredited program. Plus the classroom is super cool! This is just what he has been needing to promote his learning and development-since everyone who knows Ben knows that you cannot sit him down and explain anything to him. They say "he has adjusted great" (like always) and "is so sweet with the other kids" and "a great eater". Oh and how can I forget; "he climbs too much"!

4.) My hair is also different. As you may or may not have noticed the change since the day before Halloween when it got totally ruined at a hair place here in town that I was trying out.  I am in what I call "Hair Rehab". I have to go every 4-6 weeks for the next 6 months to get it trimmed not allowed to do highlights due to the damage. The green is now all covered up. Yes Green! Yes that is me, the random brunette with super short hair you have been seeing in the pictures. My last therapy appointment went well and I am getting uber complimented on. I am still adjusting to it all. And maybe all of this has been a blessing in disguise. (But I still look tired)

5.) Someone wants to put put an offer on our house in Virginia, so we heard. Please pray the bank approves them for a loan!!!

Here are Ben and Connor: