Kinecting With Dalton

I told you before about how fun my family and myself have found the Kinect sensor and games for the Xbox 360 to be.  Well our oldest finally returned home after spending his Christmas vacation with his mother and was elated to find the kinect system.  It wasn't long before he was logged on and ready to experience the fun.

At first of course he found it a little awkward and had to adjust to being the controller instead of holding one but it didn't take long before he got the hang of it.  Within the hour he was soaring through the air, sliding across the floor and spinning in circles.  If these pictures don't make you want to get off your sofa and run to the electronics store nothing will.

He made it look so fun and his pictures were so awesome that the rest of us were ready to jump in and have some fun too!

And who says we don't play with our kids?! LOL  Now the kids want to know if our "no video games" on school days is still in effect for the Kinect.  Hmmmm, we may have to allow this one to happen.



Bargain Buys

Everyone has their little hobbies and quirks. Lots of people love to shop for different items and bargain shopping is always a major plus.  In my household I love shopping for books.  Taking me to a bookstore is like taking the fat kid to the candy store and turning them loose.  No matter what happens I always leave with something.

On our recent trip to Half Price Books and Borders we found some really awesome deals on books that were just too great to pass up.  The trip was initially made in order to purchase something for our soon to be 15 year olds birthday but it quickly took a turn.  For under $30 I was able to return home with some great finds as well as a two gifts.  Awesome!



Happy New Year



We spent a nice quiet New Year's Eve at home with the kids.  This has become quite the family tradition for us.  No big parties, no dangers of being on the roads with possible drunk drivers and our fireworks consist of a tube of party poppers for the kids to enjoy.

For the first time both Alyssa and Cayden stayed awake until midnight to ring in the New Year and even Michael managed to keep his eyes open.  The night began with some DVD rentals.  While Michael and the kids watched the A-Team I busied myself with making cookies, hot dogs, chili and cocktail sausages in BBQ sauce.  Sorry there aren't any pictures but it was all eaten up just as quickly as I could make it. LOL

In the midst of this we had to take a break when the city of Mesquite came out to fix our sewer problems.  Yes we had to call those poor guys out on New Year's Eve night because the sewer was backing up into our backyard.  What a mess it is out there and believe me you will appreciate that I haven't taken pictures of that either. EEEWWWW!

With the sewer problem resolved we went back to just sort of hanging out and watching the various New Year's Eve specials on TV.  It wasn't long before the kids were up and dancing around the living room.



At about 10 minutes until midnight we decided to take the kids outside and let them start on their party poppers and snap 'n pops.  Being that this was the first time in our house for the New Year we weren't quite sure what to expect and wanted the kids to be able to enjoy their fun.

With their poppers all popped and it being about five after midnight we quickly ushered the kids back indoors due to the sounds of gun shots ringing out in the distance.  Now even though these were not being fired in our neighborhood, they were still close enough to be heard and remember what goes up must come down somewhere.  With keeping that in mind and the fact that a bullet can travel several miles in distance we brought the kids indoors and finished off our night with a little more dancing followed by an episode of The Three Stooges.  Quite an odd finish I know but we were channel surfing at about 1/4 til 1am and happened to stop there.



All in all it was a good night and hopefully the New Year will be filled with plenty more joyous memories.

What?! Did I forget about our New Year's Resolutions?!  Okay, here goes:

I don't believe in making resolutions.  Much too often people resolve at the beginning of the year that this will be the year that they do something and too often they are left scrambling at the end of that year trying to make that resolution come true.  For me my goals are always the same:

1. No matter what happens in life, keep moving forward.

2. Continue to devote my time to teaching my children to be the best that they can be and nothing more.

3. Continue to work towards a stable financial future.

4. Enjoy what life has given us and teach our children to do the same.

5. Spend time with family and friends.

6. Share the gifts of talent that I have been so blessed to receive with those whom appreciate them.

These are my life goals.  Things happen in their own time and I do not believe in setting a yearly time limit on achieving them.  So with that I hope that everyone is looking forward to a wonderful 2011 and I hope that it has everything you desire in store for you.

Kinecting With Our Kids

On Christmas morning the kids were elated to find that "Santa" had left the family a brand new Xbox 360 Kinect and two additional video games.  By that afternoon the system was hooked up to our Xbox 360 and we were ready to play.  Our choice of games right now are Kinect Adventures, Game Party in Motion and Sonic Free Riders.  While it was Michael who was setting up the system and testing it out he chose the first game to play, Game Party in Motion.  Now this game is slightly entertaining but I find that the little ones quickly loose interest since there isn't a lot of movement involved.  It is a compilation of about 16 arcade and outdoor games that people play.  Some examples of the games you can play are skeet ball, darts, bean bag toss, horseshoes, pool, bocce ball, air hockey and double rackets. 

(The Kinect)

(Michael playing basketball)

(Alyssa playing skeet ball)

(Alyssa & Michael playing bean bag toss)

(Throw that bean bag!)

After a little fun with those we decided to move on to Kinect Adventures.  Now this is the game comes with the Kinect system and by far has been the most fun to play over the past four days.  In this game you play rally ball, go river rafting, maneuver through obstacle courses, and so much more.  You can opt to play free play or work to earn badges at different levels (basic, intermediate, advanced etc).  You can play by yourself or with others and I swear there is never a moment of just sitting still.

(Alyssa & Cayden playing Rally ball Christmas Day)

(Dive for those balls!)

(Get your whole body into it!)

(Day 1: Cayden & Alyssa learning to play Rally ball)

As for Sonic Free Riders it's sort of like your typical Sonic game except for the face that your body is now the controller.  We've played it a little, however I think that maybe it is better suited for the teenage players.  So far the little ones haven't been able to get passed the tutorial in order to play the game and for me it was quite difficult too.  So for now this one seems to have taken a back seat to our other games.

Since getting the Kinect on Christmas morning we have absolutely dedicated at least an hour a day to playing the games.  I have to admit that with all of the rain and cold it's been great for burning off all of that stored energy.  Besides if the kids are going to play video games I'd rather it be ones that keep them active.  I also have to admit that even I have been in on the action quite a lot and this has definitely made playing video games fun.  Another sweet surprise to playing the games is that they also take photos of you as you play that you can later upload via the Kinect share website and review.  So far the only ones that I've been able to upload and share are the ones of myself because of the security features that are set on the kids and the fact that you have to have an Xbox live membership but none the less it has been fun. 

Photos from Kinectshare.com

(Go ahead and laugh)



Another awesome thing with the game is that when you earn badges you also get what they call live statues as a reward.  These little statues of course are different for every level and badge and you can animate each one with your own movements.

(One of my living statues via Kinectshare.com)

So all in all this has turned out to be one great and fun activity for the entire family. With time I am sure that we will all improve both our game play as well as our relationships with one another.  It's great for promoting teamwork and I can't wait until we get to try out some other new games and features that are offered with this system. 

And before I forget, yes you may have to rearrange your furniture in order to create the optimum play space (persons need to able to stand 6-8 ft. back from the sensor), we did.  Also, it didn't say so in the initial set up but we did have to take down a mirror that was on the wall opposite of the sensor because it was reflecting light at the sensor.  Other than that, not too much of a change was needed. 

(Day 4: Cayden flying for space bubbles)

(Day 4: Alyssa & Cayden River Rafting)

(Day 4: Alyssa & Cayden playing Rally Ball)



Our Christmas Story

The Children are nestled

all snug in their beds,

with visions of sugar plums

dancing in their heads.

The stockings are stuffed

and hung on the wall,

I only pray

they do not fall.

Mrs. Claus has laid out the presents

by tree light,

Mr. Claus is slowly putting together

Cayden's new bike

Soon off to bed

we will go,

'cause the children

will rise early we know.

Santa had come

by the early day light,

The kids were awake

and beheld a great site.

An mp3 player for her

a new bike for him,

The time for opening presents

was about to begin.

With pillow pals, new trains,

a v.Reader and doll;

The gifts were still coming,

they hadn't opened them all.

A diary, a scribbler,

new clothes and some books;

They thought they were finished,

but they'd clearly mistook.

A camp set, a nutcracker,

puzzles and trains galore;

This should be the end,

there should be no more.

Now empty their stockings

and clean up the mess;

There's one thing left to do,

say "Merry Christmas!"