A Few Cute Stories!

Okay...so I'm a total blog stalker and I have been inspired by a fellow blogger to post some cute Toddler Stories. The boys are officially back to school now. They started back on the 15th and have transitioned great! Christopher has jumped right back into the swing of pre-school and has been doing great! Alexander has moved to the Toddler II room now, which means the next move will be to Pre-school (AUGHHH!! That's my baby!)!
*Alexander has been starting to potty train at school and has done very well! (No diapers soon I hope)
*Christopher has been dressing himself for awhile now, but always has a tough time with snapping his pants. His new teacher's, Ms. Irene, motto is "To Try First". So after a couple of days of trying to accomplish this task, late last week he did it! I hear that his face was priceless and he was very excited to tell me about it when I picked him up.
* Alexander is now counting almost to 12! He just randomly starts counting (sometimes objects, sometimes just to count) and almost always gets to 12 before he gets confused. Occasionally he gets to about 8 and stops, but he has counted as far as 14 without help before. We are very proud of our little man!
*Alexander has also been recently referring to himself as "De-De". Don't ask me why. We call him a lot of things (brother, Alex, Baby, etc.), but nothing that even sounds close to "De-De". He will say "De-De wants a snack" or "De-De needs juice". We will ask him "What is your name?" and he will respond by saying "Alexander King (which sounds more like aley-ander Ing), not "De-De". We haven't quite figured out where this is coming from, but it certainly is cute.
* Christopher has been a HUGE helper lately. The other day when we came home from school I had to run back to the van to get groceries and when I came back in Christopher had taken off both his and his brothers coats and had hung them on their hooks on the back porch! I know that it sounds like a simple task, but as mother's we take glory in the simple victories right? I was so proud! I didn't ask, he just took it upon himself to help out! He is turning into such a big boy!

So here are some just adorable stories! (Can you note the sarcasm??) :)
Christopher was being just a royal pain one of the last days at home with me before they went back to school. He had already been in trouble several times, once for hitting his brother in the face with a toy sword, and we were getting ready for nap. Now I feel like I should note that we are not common spanker's, we feel like if there is another way to deal with the situation then we will do that, but as a mother of two toddler boys I am well aware of the fact that sometimes a spanking is necessary. So they were going down for nap and he had gotten up several times. The last time I heard the pitter patter of little feet across the floor and a jump into bed. When I peaked into their room he was in a little ball on his bed, but wide awake, so I went over to scold him and fix his blankets and this is how the conversation went:
Mom: "Christopher, do not get out of this bed again. You will get in trouble!"
Christopher: A little smile that said "I don't care."
Mom: again.."Christopher if you get out of this bed again, I am going to spank your bare bottom. I am not kidding!"
Christopher: Emphatically-"Mommy! I am not a bear!"
Mom: "Christopher, I am well aware that you are not a bear, but you will still get a spanking!"
-It was all I could do not to roll on the floor laughing. I mean, seriously, how cute is that?!

Okay..so here's an Alexander story for all to appreciate. :) He has been going through this very stubborn stage. If he has his mind set on doing something his way that is the way that he thinks it should be done! So he had his mind made up one evening that I was going to change his diaper. I was busy working on something else so Sean took on the task. Will our stubborn little boy was not having any of that..he fought and screamed and cried the entire time Sean was changing his stinky diaper. Finally, he got his pants on and Alex took them right back off screaming "Mommy do it!". Sean put them back on and Alexander came running into me still screaming "Mommy do it!" I told him, just like Sean had several times, "Mommy is busy. Daddy changed your diaper this time, next time Mommy will change you, but you do not get everything your way Alexander.". So our little intuitive little one clenched up his face, grunted, and said "Mommy change now!" That little bugger popped his pants just so that I would change him!! Sean and I both just had to laugh..at least his sticks to his guns! I'm sure someday we will appreciate it.

Well...that is our life as parents of two boys! :) We will be posting more after the holidays with pictures as well as an adorable little video of Christopher and our nephew, Josh, at their Christmas program at church where Josh "directed" the other kids and Christopher did a little break dance in the middle of a song and howled during a song about Jesus in the manger (apparently, there was a coyote at his manger!). The both also took a very keen interest in the speaker and would hide behind it listening and then pop up. Very cute! Well...Merry Christmas to everyone!

Thanksgiving 2008!

Well Thanksgiving is officially over for the King clan. We started last Saturday with my family, had Thanksgiving at the church on Sunday, and had Thanksgiving with Sean's family in Columbia on Thanksgiving Day. I had my annual Black Friday shopping adventure again this year. There were 7 of us total this year and it started with my sisters, Leighanna and Katrina, picking me up at 4:30am to head to Target. We got some awesome deals there and, as always, had a lot of fun. We met up with our mom, aunt, soon-to-be sister-in-law, EmmaLee, and family friend at 8:00 to head to Oak Park. We worked our way back to St Joe ending with, as tradition calls for, Target again, and headed home at 10:30. It was a lot of fun, and other than a few gift cards I am done with my Christmas shopping! Yeah! Now if I could only muster up the energy to put up my Christmas decorations this weekend I'd be set! I have posted some pictures of the Thanksgivings and a couple misc. I hope you enjoy!

A couple of random pictures of the boys at home.

*******Alexander****************** Christopher****
Making our portion of our 1st Thanksgiving dinner

Alex-Green Bean Cass******* Topher-Pie Crust******* Topher-Carmel Pecan Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving with The Darrs

Dinner Time!*************All 5 boys eating********Alex and PaPa*******

*****Sean and Mindi*******Alex w/ G.G. Darr***All 5 boys****


***All 5 boys with Papa*****The King Clan******
Thanksgiving with The Kings

***Collin and Alexander *****

**The boys in their sleeping bags**All 3 boys wrestling



Alex & Sean***********Alex and Mindi*****Sean with his sisters


Alexander*******Sean smoking the ham at 2:00am. Dedication!


Topher & Shannan*****Sean and Topher****Topher and Mindi

Mindi and Alex*******Alex and Sean********Alexander



Shannan and Collin**********Mindi*************Sean and Alex


****Mindi and Collin*****Christopher************Topher

Pictures!!! (I know they are way overdue!)

Okay..so I'm well aware of how overdue pictures are....but as you can see by the photos below..we've been a little busy! ;) This is pretty much the entire month of October as well as the beginning of November. The boys have loved staying home with Moogie the past couple of months. It is hard to believe that we have less than a month until the go back. I think that it will be a tough transition, but this has been the plan all along, and I'm sure that they will adjust quickly back into the old routine. We have another busy couple of months ahead of us too. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. With our big family we have to stretch out holidays to fit everything in and our Thanksgivings actually start this coming weekend. Sean is super excited, it's his favorite holiday, but I just can't believe that it's almost here, which means Christmas is just around the corner! Thankfully I'm almost completely done with my shopping..but I'm still really looking forward to our Black Friday Fun!! Every year since I was a teenager a bunch of us get together to shop. I know, we probably are crazy, but we have the best time! Well..I'll stop rambling since I know that you really want are the pictures! Enjoy and God Bless!

The cousins on the Darr side, early October.
Back: Brewer (5) Front: Joshua (2 1/2), Wyman (6), Christopher (4), and Alexander (2). All of the boys are about 15 months apart except for Alex and Josh and they are about 10 months. So far, no new ones on the way to start this tradition again, but I know that the next turn is not mine. I have the baby, so to my lovely siblings it's up to you now and I'll jump in later! :)

On 10/10 we went to see the Pumpkin Wall in St Joe and the boys had a great time. This was our first year and they thought it was so cool to see a whole wall of pumpkins lite up.

My sisters on the Darr side met us down there .My little sister Trina with her fiance Eric and their dog Lola.

My other sister, Leighanna, with her husband, Matt, and Josh.
Christopher on his birthday (10/11). 4!!!!
The next day we took the boys on our annual trip to Hunt's Orchard to go to the pumpkin patch.
The highlight of it for me is getting to take some great fall pictures. My boys!
My family!

Every year the boys each get a caramel apple. We always get the cutest shots of them eating them.

We had the boys birthday party on 10-18. These were the cakes! They were awesome. We have the same lady from Stewartsville make the boys' cakes that made all of mine growing up. Alexander's was a caterpillar and Christopher's was a bumblebee (just like on the invitations.). The were great! Thanks Shelly!
The awesome bug cupcakes I made (it took 2 hours..but totally worth it!)
Alexander the day of the party
Christopher the day of the party

Christopher at the boy's party with his new Buzz Light year. He was very exited!
Alexander at the boy's party very happy about all of the new Mickey Mouse stuff he got!
Alexander on his birthday (10/20). 2!!!!

3 of our 4 pumpkins. Sean did the face and the Pi sign! It was so cute and he was so proud. I did my first attempt at words and carved Psalm 27:1. It turned out pretty good...but next years will be better. We also did a transfer one of a witch flying with the moon, I just didn't get any good pictures of that one.
We spent Halloween at our church's Pumpkin Patch Party. The boys had a great time. There was so much to do. Hayrides, horse rides, bounce houses, games, food, trunk-or-treating, and so much more it was a blast! Christopher was a cowboy this year.
Alexander was a cow! Isn't his costume just adorable? Sean's mom made it. So cute!
While this isn't child related I still feel that it's worth mentioning. Every spring and fall the youth at our church host a trivia night. We have teams of 8 and there are 10 rounds of questions. It is so much fun. The spring was our first time and our team came in 3rd, not to shabby. This fall our team placed 1st!! Yeah!! So now for the spring night the youth will serve us steak as our reward. Very awesome! And all of the proceeds go to help the youth program. Great cause and a lot of fun!! This is our #1 team!!