Categories
Tech

Xbox Kinect

WE LOVE OUR KINECT!! If any McBlog readers are looking for a great birthday present or new workout program, we would recommend checking out the kinect. We have been having so much fun playing sports, working out, and getting high scores. After we borrowed Jessica and Casey’s kinect over the Christmas break, we were pretty hooked. I easily justified the cost by saying, I could join a gym for 10 months OR I could buy a xbox and kinect. I get just as much workout, if not more, I can do it in my own home, and it’s a ton of fun. Plus I can play other games. If anyone else out there has one, lets play!

For those who don’t know yet, kinect is a new xbox addon that tracks your entire body and sends data back to the xbox. Currently it can track most basic movements and direction. In the future it will be able to detect individual fingers and facial gestures. Here’s another main reason we love it, watch Chase play video games for a few minutes, he actually gets tired!

UPDATED WITH VIDEO
Here I am playing track and field. Each game captures you while playing (you can turn that off) and makes a fun highlight clip for you at the end.

And my favorite so far, beach volleyball

Categories
Charlotte

VICTORY!

Some may find this amusing, maybe even ridiculous. But I assure you, it’s been a very big deal for us. Right up there with potty-training and transitioning to a big kid bed (we’re not going to attempt to put Charlotte through either of those quite yet).

(drumroll)…

*****CHARLOTTE HAS GIVEN UP HER BINKIES FOREVER!!!*****

Pictures like the one below will be happening no longer, because there are no more pacifiers to be found in the house… they’re tucked away somewhere at Jessica & Casey’s. Shhh!

This all started on Saturday night when I bought an Ariel hairbrush for Charlotte (Ariel is her FAVE), and of course Pace commented, “She doesn’t need that!” Hmmm. Right then & there I decided that we would give her the beautiful brush in exchange for the binkies.

Why???

1. Because it was time, 2. She’s a big 2-year-old now, 3. We’re tired of looking for the binkies for every nap and bed time, 4. She’ll have other traumatizing issues to deal with soon enough (like potty-training), and 5. Her teeth will thank us later.

So the very next day we had Charlotte gather all her pacifiers and put them in a large envelope addressed to the “Binky Fairy” (an idea from Supernanny– love it). She was excited about being a big girl, though she certainly didn’t foresee the drastic results of this little ceremony.

We marched outside to put them in the mailbox for the Binky Fairy.

Charlotte came inside to find her new magical Ariel brush from the “Binky Fairy"! She has been carrying it around the house ever since (along with her Ariel doll, and occasionally her Princess magazine and her Unicorn Pillow Pet). She has to have those things with her to go to bed now, too.

The next time she had to go to sleep after “mailing” the binkies, she frantically searched her crib and asked, “Binkies?!?!??” And for the next few days, complete TORTURE followed for all of us. I knew it would happen, but I didn’t know how challenging it would be. She didn’t nap and would cry for a long time before going to sleep, and also woke up all night. It was one of those things where you just want to give in. But we endured! It was tough love.

Charlotte is now completely binky-free and is doing just fine without those darn things. She goes to bed and states calmly, “Charlotte big girl. No cry.” She is proud to call herself a big girl.

This may sound a little silly, but I feel like we’ve accomplished something great, and I’m relieved that things are back to normal now!

UPDATED WITH VIDEO

Categories
Family Fun

Quality Cousin Time

We went over to Jake & Leann’s (Leann=my cousin) for a little pizza and Wii action the other night. We enjoyed spending time with them.

Charlotte & 2nd Cousin Jessica had an especially good time together! Jessica is about to turn eight. Her dad, who was recently baptized, will perform her baptism and they will also go to the temple to be sealed together as an eternal family. How amazing is that!

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Jake & Leann are a little TOO good at the Wii games; we assume they must practice all day, every day.  P.S. I am absolutely awful at Mario Kart, but I killed them all in the Frisbee toss game. Go figure.

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Pace volunteered to teach us the proper form for golf. Check out that rear end!!!

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I love Charlotte’s huge blue eyes in the above photo. We look nothing alike!

Categories
Charlotte

A Friend for Charlotte

Charlotte has a new friend, who’s only a month older than her. We watch her twice a week for a few hours. This little friend introduced us to tutus and to her Barbie princess movie which includes a fun dance video called “Shine.”

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It’s good for Charlotte to have a girlfriend her age because there are absolutely no girls in our ward or neighborhood anywhere near Charlotte’s age. Nursery right now consists of 5 boys, and Charlotte. Shocking for a Utah ward, eh?!?

Categories
Family Fun

R&N and D&N Came to Town!

I’m a little late in posting this… but Rachel & Nathan came for Rachel’s friend’s wedding a couple weeks ago. It was great to have an excuse to see them! We had a great time hanging out. And they babysat for us, too! THEY should live closer. Smile

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They also got Charlotte a late birthday present: A Pillow Pet. Those things are quite large, btw. They swapped the ladybug one out for a unicorn one since Charlotte liked the latter better. They also got Chase a dolphin one. Thanks, I guess (haha)!

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Darin & Nada also stopped by, with their little ones Luke and Natalie. They are SO brave; they’ve driven across the entire country with their kids twice (or 3 times??). I don’t know HOW they do it!

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It was fun to have Brad & Tiffany & co. over as well as GG & Grandaddy, so we could all hang out, eat, and play some good ol’ “Euchre”!

Categories
Deals

Gamers Delight

Hey gamers, (sorry Joy for two boring posts in a row) OnLive, that game site I told you to go checkout, is letting you play every game for free for as long as you want. No more 15 min trial limit, just play. Offer is good for the next two weeks. I just wanted to spread the word, it’s definitely worth trying.

For the next two weeks, you’ll have unlimited access to all of our PlayPack games. Play whatever you want, for as long as you want*. But do it now while the Free Beta lasts!

Play free now! Just sign in and select “OnLive PlayPack Beta” under My Games.

Categories
T.V.

Redemption Island

Every season of Survivor, I’m concerned that Jeff will announce they will not be doing another season. Luckily, it wasn’t last season and the next installment is set to start on Feb. 16th. You won’t want to miss a single episode as they will be bringing back Boston Rob and Evil Russel!! I know huh! That should be serious entertainment and I predict Russell will go to redemption island and then try to beat everyone one on one.

Categories
Family Fun

Funny Randoms from McGrandparents’ House

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Categories
Chase Adventures McVideos

Best Day Ever!

It snowed a lot. We built a snow slide.

Then we added a jump

Then Chase declared to the world, “BEST DAY EVER!

Categories
Personal Spiritual Thoughts

Grateful

A couple days ago, an amazing friend gave us a tub of size 3T girls clothes for Charlotte. I cannot tell you how grateful I was! It’s a challenge to keep up with buying kids’ clothes as they grow so rapidly. So I felt like she was basically handing me a couple hundred dollars when she handed me that box of clothes. Of course she wouldn’t accept payment, but I will figure out some sort of repayment! I’m glad to know that I can “pay it forward” by doing the same for someone else someday.

Also, when Charlotte was still an infant, another friend (you know who you are) gave us a grocery bag of baby food that her toddler no longer needed. I wanted to reimburse her because she had paid good money for that baby food, but she declined it. She mentioned that people had given her baby food, clothes, etc. in the past, and we all just pass things on to others. “What goes around, comes around” was the gist of it. I was grateful for that message and example. I know that when we see our cup being filled to the brim with blessings, we can show our gratitude by giving to someone else (by way of a helping hand, or a kind word, or material things, whatever it may be). Because when we’re serving others, we’re serving God.