Bedtime Stories!!!

One of my most favorite things is actually bedtime, when LeGrand is home. Obviously having him home makes everything easier...but what I'm talking about is experiencing his Bedtime Stories!! They are seriously awesome...the only problem is that they are so awesome that the kids have a hard time calming down and going to sleep afterwards. I love listening to LeGrand and the kids as they do this together!! I had to capture some of it in picture and video. Every story is about ..."The Cute Kiddos Chronicles of Brayden, Addy, Sophie and Kolby." Where they are Prince's and Princesses in the imaginary land of Sanabieth. No two stories are ever the same and they are all really exciting and have good morals. I've told LeGrand we should write these down and put them in a book for our kids...he's written one so far. (It's posted below) Then I recorded one (that will be the easier way to document them all probably) and tried to post it for your enjoyment but was having troubles with uploading the video...OK really so our kids can see it... There is laughter, tears, screams, shrills, jumping up and down and after every story they say it was the best one ever!! Wow, LeGrand is so talented and such an amazing dad! We are so blessed!!!

The Cute Kiddo Chronicles of Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby

CHAPTER 1: CAPTAIN ZIVIG

After a care-free summer day around the castle, Prince Brayden, Princess Addy, Princess Sophie, and Prince Kolby sat down to a wonderful meal. Life in the Kingdom of Sanabiath was good.

Meanwhile, the Princes and Princesses dog, Daisy, had gone on a walk out in the nearby wood with another canine from a neighboring kingdom. They were such good friends that it was very easy for them to lose track of time when they were together, which is exactly what happened this time.

When the dogs realized that darkness had begun to fall they started to make their way back to the castle. They were suddenly snatched up by a large net that had been concealed in the murky forest floor. They yelped franticly for help but they were still too far from the castle to be heard by anyone. They were soon silenced by an evil, sinister laugh. A foreboding figure emerged from the shadows. It was Captain Zivig- leader of the Zivigite army.

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While tucking themselves into bed that night, Princess Sophie noticed that they had not seen Daisy for a while and inquired of her whereabouts. The four of them quickly moved about the castle searching for their beloved pooch. After several long minutes of searching, it was evident that Daisy was not inside the castle, so they moved their search outdoors around the castle grounds. Daisy was still nowhere to be found. Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby feared the worst. The quickly gathered their weapons, armor, and supplies and mounted their horses. They set off on a journey in search of their dog not knowing where they would go or how long it would take.

After a couple of hours riding around the dark forest, they found an open area, pitched their tents, and slept the rest of the night. At the break of dawn, Sophie and Kolby awoke to find that Brayden and Addy had already had a warm fire started and a nice breakfast prepared for everyone. They ate quickly, had a prayer together asking for help to find their dog, and then cleaned up camp, got on their horses, and set off on the rescue mission again.

As they came to an open meadow, they were startled by the sight of a menacing army looking down at them from the crest of a nearby hilltop. The leader of the army slowly descended the hill on his jet black stallion with armed guards on either side of him following close behind. At the top of the hill behind them, Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby gasped as they saw Daisy and her friend caged up in an enchanted metal crate.

As the Villon approached on his black stallion, he introduced himself as Captain Zivig- leader of the Zivigite army. He said that the only way they could get their dogs back was to give up their kingdom and surrender all to them.

“That’s a pretty wimpy looking horse you’ve got there,” Brayden said unexpectedly.

Captain Zivig was taken aback by this. “What!?!” He retorted.

Addy quickly caught on to Brayden’s tactic and began to play along. “Ya, I bet your horse couldn’t even beat a turtle in a race.”

“Or not even a snail,” Sophie quickly added, wanting to join in on the fun.

Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby all broke out in great laughter. This infuriated Captain Zivig all the more, “What are you talking about!?! My horse is the finest and fastest stallion ever bread!”

“Prove it then,” Brayden demanded.

“Alright, let’s race,” Captain Zivig reasoned. “All 4 of you verses me and 3 of my best men and we’ll see who has the fastest horses.”

“Okay,” Brayden said calmly, “Whichever team has someone cross the finish line first is the winning team. If we win, we get our dogs back and you leave our lands forever.”

“And WHEN I win, I get your dogs and your whole kingdom.” Captain Zivig added.

“Uh, don’t you mean IF you win?” one of Zivig’s guards said.

“Quiet, you fool!” Captain Zivig shouted angrily. “Well,” he continued, “do we have a deal?”

“Deal,” Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby all said in confident unison.

“Tomorrow, noon, at our castle,” Kolby instructed. “But we get to keep our dogs overnight.”

“Fine,” Captain Zivig contemptuously agreed, “Take the mangy scoundrels, but they stay in the cage, and I hold the key. We’ll see you tomorrow at noon.”

The two parties separated. Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby headed back to the castle with their two caged up animals. Upon arrival to the castle, they fed the dogs and immediately began preparing themselves and their horses for the big race the next day.

CHAPTER 2: THE RACE

At high noon, the crowds watched nervously as the race began. Captain Zivig and his 3 men, all on jet black horses, darted from the starting line early before the signal to go sounded. On the “go” signal, Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby followed close behind. The Zivigite army cheered as their cheating leader had a healthy head start. The people of the kingdom of Sanabiath booed the devious Zivigite soldiers and their leader. Their boos were quickly replaced with cheers for their beloved Princes and Princesses: Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby.

They were off on the much anticipated race. Even though Captain Zivig and his men were way ahead, the Princes and Princesses did not panic, but rather, they paced themselves due to the lengthiness of the race; they didn’t want to tire their horses out too quickly.

The race was to turn through the woods, circle all the way around Mount Sanabiath, cut through a small portion of the woods on the south side of the mountain, and then shoot through the open meadow back to the castle where the finish line and the cheering crowds waited for them.

By the time they made it to the first grove of trees, they had gained some ground on the bad guys. Just then, one of the Zivigite soldiers turned his body around and pointed a loaded cross bow right at Kolby. Just as he was about to shoot, he violently flew off his horse after being knocked hard in the head by an overhanging tree branch. He was out cold. So, one bad guy down and 3 to go.

They all emerged from the forest almost simultaneously with Zivig and his men still maintaining a slight lead. All the riders then began the rugged but brief ascent up and around the base of Mount Sanabiath. One of the Zivigite soldiers unintentionally caused a large bolder to jar loose when he leaped on top of it with his horse. The bolder rolled down the hill behind him and smashed his partner. It nearly crushed Sophie too but she jumped off of her horse and onto the back of Addy’s horse just in time. So, Captain Zivig and just one of his men were the only ones that remained on their team. Sophie’s horse, Tulip, had managed to get out of the way of the falling rock but was trapped in a steep ravine.

After a grueling hour of racing they finally came around the bend on the other side of Mount Sanabiath. Brayden and Captain Zivig rode side by side at ever increasing speeds. Captain Zivig drew his sword and began swinging angrily at Brayden. Brayden quickly drew his sword and strongly withstood all of Captain Zivig’s blows. They engaged in an intense sword fight while riding side by side at high speed.

In the mean time, Addy and Sophie caught up to the other bad guy and Sophie jumped off of Addy’s horse, Summer, and onto the back of the bad guy’s horse. She threw him off his horse and took it over. Suddenly, the horse Sophie was riding fell to the ground throwing Sophie off. The horse had collapsed from complete exhaustion. Addy and Summer turned around and ran back to pick up Sophie. Luckily she was okay. Sophie jumped on the back of Summer and the girls raced off toward the castle together.

While all of this took place, Brayden continued to fight feverishly with Captain Zivig. During all of this, Kolby had shot way ahead of everyone and rapidly approached the finish line. All of the people from the Kingdom of Sanabiath let out a roaring cheer as they saw Kolby racing in front of everyone. When Captain Zivig heard the cheers, he looked up in panic. He impulsively rammed his horse into Brayden’s horse, Lighting, knocking him off balance and Lighting fell to the ground taking Brayden with him. Captain Zivig then raced ahead as fast as he could in hot pursuit of Kolby.

Brayden got up and saw that his horse, Lighting, was injured. He threw a blanket over him and said, “Wait here Lighting, we’ll be back.” Just then Summer pulled up with Addy and Sophie on her back. Sophie reached out her hand, Brayden grabbed it and swung himself up onto the horse and they continued on toward the castle. They looked up and saw Captain Zivig catch up to Kolby with only about 50 yards to go.

Captain Zivig swung his closed fist desperately at Kolby as hard as he could. When Kolby ducked just in time, Captain Zivig swung around, lost his balance and flew off his horse. Kolby, with his horse, Spirit, flew first past the finish line while the crowd cheered wildly in sheer delight.

CHAPTER 3: NOT DONE YET

Bray, Addy, and Sophie-still riding on Summer- arrived at the finish line soon after the race had ended. They all jumped off the horse and embraced Kolby and each other. Then, being overcome with exhaustion, they fell to the ground.

After a few moments, Captain Zivig came hobbling up to them. Brayden, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby quickly got to their feet.

“Alright,” Prince Brayden said, “a deal’s a deal, hand over the keys to the dog’s cage and get you and your men out of here.”

Captain Zivig reached into his pocket, but instead of pulling out keys, he pulled out a wand. He immediately shouted some incantation and a bright flashing light flew out of the tip of his wand. Before they knew it, Bray, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby stood face to face with a giant, ominous dragon. The people of Sanabiath screamed and scattered, frantically looking for safe shelter.

Bray, Addy, Sophie, and Kolby pulled out their weapons and began fighting the ruthless beast. They dodged fireballs and blocked its sharp claws. Prince Brayden, Princess Addy, Princess Sophie, and Prince Kolby’s courage were unmatched by anyone. Their bravery was unparalleled. They always fought valiantly for the safety of their people. That is one of the reasons why everyone loved them so much.

While Brayden, Addy, and Sophie distracted the dragon, Kolby ran behind a tree near where Captain Zivig stood controlling the dragon with his wand. Suddenly, something terrifying happened. Brayden, Sophie, and Kolby heard a scream; they looked up and saw that the Dragon had Addy in its clutches.

“Noooo,” they all yelled desperately as the dragon held Addy over his wide open mouth, ready to drop her in and eat her. The dragon’s teeth were large and very sharp.

Right as the Dragon let go of Addy and she began falling into its mouth, Kolby jumped out from behind the tree and cut Captain Zivig’s wand in half with his sword. The dragon immediately disappeared and Addy began the long fall towards the ground. Brayden ran, dove, and caught her just before she landed on the hard surface.

Meanwhile, Sophie and Kolby jumped on Captain Zivig, grabbed the keys to the cage, opened it up, let the dogs out and threw Captain Zivig in. After seeing the defeat of their Captain, the Zivigite army ran away in fright, never to return.

Prince Brayden, Princess Addy, Princess Sophie, and Prince Kolby’s bravery saved Sanabiath once again and they restored peace and safety to the Kingdom. They held a great feast the next day and gave thanks for their deliverance from evil.

THE END