Synchronization of Us

Who does not love YouTube?

I’m always surprised at just how huge the website is, it seems no matter what im looking for it can be found on that site. I can easily spend hours browsing different TV clips or music videos and so can my children.
I had no idea YouTube on Xbox would be such a hit but it was given a thumbs up by the children and myself within minutes.

Its incredible simple to use , using the Quick Play option on the Xbox dashboard and a few clicks and your free to browse . Searching took a little bit of getting use to but that is no-ones fault really as keyboard typing is not available – it would be great if Xbox could find away to combine is voice activation software with it .
It was then the orders started – request after request of the songs the kids wanted to listen to and then they watched some videos of themselves and then they all curled up on the couch watching Littlest Pet Shop videos (its a 9 year old thing…) .
Been able to sit and watch youtube on our big screen TV from the comfort of the sofa was a big deal for us and i can see it being played with daily .

My niece wanted to become a Youtube star so we made a little video showing how easy it is ..

Remember if you don’t have an Xbox live membership you can enter the code below for a half price 3 month membership

Ab0tM3mmy

I loved taken part in this last year (although i don’t think i put many of the pictures on this blog) . It was all going great till August when i lost my camera with 3 weeks worth of pictures on it and it felt pointless carrying on.

So this year im back and hoping to complete the challenge . I will post the pictures once a week to keep post numbers down .

January 1 Going to visit the in laws

January 2 A lazy pj day

January 3 Post soft play waiting outside in the cold hugs.

January 4 Ice Cream !!!!!

January 5 Twins

January 6 Happy Boy

January 7 The best part of making cookies

January 8 Sleeping baby

Quick post so im all caught up and can resume normal blogging.

Boxing day was “Christmas all over again” at my mother in laws and another lovely day was had with all

We spent the rest of the week chilling and spending time as a family which it turns out is the perfect way to spend the holidays.

For New Years we decided to let the girls stay (or try to stay) up till midnight. Ru went to bed at 7.30pm (instead of 5.30pm in the hopes he would sleep in a little the next day) and the rest of us spent the evening reading and playing some games.

Around 9-ish we set out a buffet and cuddled up to watch a movie . Eilidh as we expected fell sound asleep during it and went to bed.

Becca was determined to make it to midnight and sure enough she made it

She was so pleased with herself.

After the excitement of the day before it was New Years day dinner at the in laws .

Figured i better get around to posting about this before next Christmas

The holiday season this year has been perfect , no sick kids (or parents) and no stress or fighting . Its just been fun and full of family togetherness.

Christmas eve was spent preparing by making cookies ..

(REMEMBER kid made lol)

(The mess almost sent me into a panic but i held it together well. It did clean up easily)

The afternoon was spent watching Muppets and dancing to Christmas music before having a Pizza Hut for dinner. Putting food outside for the reindeer followed.

(Yeah no ideas why Eilidh has a dolls dummy either)

The kids all went to bed excited

And woke up at silly o’clock

(Girls were up at 3AM and sent back to bed dozen of times before being allowed up at 6)

The best dolls house ever was one of the gifts

And this shows perfectly was life is like in a boy/girl household

After a lovely morning (and a nice big fry up) we had visits from my in laws then went to my parents for dinner.

My boy looked grown up

The girls were hyper

Dinner was yummy

Then papa scared Ruaridh with balloons

And Ruaridh got annoyed at mummy for taken to many pictures

Then my amazing boys gave my amazing smiles

And then it was the girls turn

And to end the meal a lovely cake

All in all just the perfect Christmas day – roll on 2012

Xbox really is becoming our go-to console for everything and even more so that we can now stream movies on it. We have been talking about getting a subscription to love film and the adding it to the Xbox gave us the final push we needed.

You do need access to a computer to sign up and then download a small app on the Xbox itself but all this is quick and easy to do , before you know it you have everything set up and you can cuddle up and choose what you want to watch . There are plenty of categories to choose from and a nice big selection (although the movies are normally a few years old , my hubby and i struggled to find something we both wanted to watch although saw plenty we would watch separately) . The movie streamed perfectly and it was just as simple as watching a dvd.

As a special treat for my readers i also have a 3 month half price code to share for Xbox LIVE GOLD . You just need to enter the code found below

Ab0tM3mmy

Happy movie watching everyone.

Every year my dads work (he works for Coca Cola if anyone is interested) hire a company to do a puppet show for the children and at the end a very special visitor shows up.

This year it was both Ruaridh’s and my first time seeing it and i was very impressed . Ru thought it was great fun too but he is not that great at sitting still for more than 5 minutes at a time which can make these things a little stressful .

What he did sit for he enjoyed (although he did jump when they first came on)

The rest of them were better at behaving

Although by the end of it all 3 of my kids were up and dancing

Here is a little clip from the show

(Puppet show was done by the Calderwood Baptist Church)

Afterwards Santa came to visit and gave the kids all a Christmas stocking full of treats.

Now does Santa look familiar to anyone ?

This year the honor of playing him went to my dad , my niece knew all about it but we were prepared to cover should my girls notice (Papa is Santa’s super helped you know… ) . The girls seemed clueless and it surprised us all when the boy started saying “Papa is Santa” – thankfully though a quick no he is not (yes mummy told a fib) was enough to convince him and he was happy to accept someone else was Santa.

I have been chosen to be a Xbox Live Ambassadors and i could not be happier.

I have very little experience with the Xbox and Xbox live and was completely amazed to learn all the things you could do with it. I am looking forward to the next few weeks and really getting to test out all it has to offer.

So what does it have to offer ? Well almost everything it seems , Xbox users will have received a dashboard upgrade this week and in addition to new and updated features those who have Kinect will be able to say and find it with Bing Search. This week also saw the arrival of partnerships between Xbox Live and Lovefilm and Sky GO – given you access to huge catalogs of your favorite movies and TV shows . In the next few weeks 4 on Demand, blinkbox , Crackle, Dailymotion, Demand 5 , MSN, Muzu Tu , VEVO, BBC and everyone’s favorite clip site You Tube will be joining them.

Xbox is offering a complete all in one experience and all of it can be controlled by the sound of your voice.

What else could we really want ?

Saturday we decided to take the kids to visit Santa. After much discussion we decided to go to the grotto at Valley International Park . Normally we just go to the one in the shopping center but paying out £20 for the privilege of spending 2 hours in a queue and 1 minute with Santa just did not sound like fun.

The kids were not excited at all….

We got there and had to take a little walk through a magical forest

Then we had to wait on the train to take us to the North Pole

Then went on a magical train journey

Which included some wonderful tunnels that were “amazing and cool”

Upon arrival at the north pole we got some cookies and juice to keep us warm and got to explore some lovely places

And finally the kids all got to meet the person they were so excited about meeting

It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon (my only real complaint was how much more Christmas-y it would of seem if it had been snowing then)

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Rememeber if you have’t already to fill in this survey on game consoles

http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix3/p827409305.aspx?source=31

You could win £200 in Amazon vouchers for taken part

(5 year olds self portrait)

This morning i was making Eilidh’s packed lunch up (she always goes Packed lunches if she can , Rebecca prefers school dinners as “packed lunches are for babies) . I had promised her an orange with her meal and as i knew it would be hard to peel i done it for her and decided i may as well make her a fruit salad to go with it. It was simple – just the orange , some grapes and cut up strawberries which i placed in a cup and covered up.

After im finished making lunch Eilidh always comes to inspect it (to check im feeding her enough i think ) and her reaction to the fruit salad was so genuine and sweet it brought a tear to my eye . Immediately she just got the biggest grin on her face and in her loveliest voice just said “thank you mummy its perfect” . I was then given one of the biggest and tightest hugs she could give me .  She of course had to tell everyone (including the cats) about it and how excited she was.

I guess its ironic in some ways , put so much time and effort (and money) into doing what we feel is right for the children and a little bit of nothing makes there day.

Talking about a little bit of nothing , i would love to give my readers a little something special this Christmas . How would you like £200 to spend in Amazon.co.uk ? All you have to do is fill in this simple Gaming survey and you will be entered into the price draw to win £200 of vouchers.

http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix3/p827409305.aspx?source=31

It only will only take a few minutes of your time and you could be £200 richer.

Yesterday we woke up to a winter wonderland (finally – it seems i cannot really get in the Christmas mood till it starts). Of course i then had 3 very excited and happy children. Unfortunately it was not “bad” enough to warrant a snow day but there was enough that the children could all go out and have a little play.

As the famous song says “let it snow,let is snow, let it snow”

And of course the “must attack Antie with the snow ” video.