iPhone 5

So I did it. I broke down and bought an iPhone 5. My husband and I both went to Verizon to upgrade our phones. He wasn't too pleased that I opted to pay extra for the 5 while he got the 4s. His reply was "you always have to have the best out there, don't you?". The answer to that is YES!! I had a Droid with 4G, how could I possibly go back to a 3G phone? Although I love my iPhone for many reasons, I've compiled a list of my top 3 reasons. First reason is the ease of Facetime! A lot of my friends and family have iPhones, and I love how it's just as easy to Facetime them as it is to call them. For those of you who do not know what Facetime is, it's an application that is already loaded on your iPhone that allows you to video talk to another person. This especially came in handy when my husband stayed home to care for one of our sick children while I was at our other child's Christmas program. He was able to watch her from home. It's also nice on those long work days and you just want to see your child's smiling face while you ask her how her day was at school. Second reason is that I love the visual voicemail! Although this feature was available on my other phone, I had to pay for that service. With iPhone, it is built in. This allows you to see your voicemails on a screen, and you can choose which ones you want to listen to. You don't have to worry about dialing into your voicemail and entering a password in order to retrieve your messages. Better yet, you don't have to go through 20 saved messages in order to get to the one you wanted to hear. Finally, reason number 3......SIRI!! She is a wonderful personal assistant. Siri is voice recognition software with a wide range of capabilities. I say "Call my husband", and she does. I tell her "Remind me to pick up bread on the way home", and she does! Due to my lack of navigation skills, I often tell Siri "get me home", and she finds the fastest route to my house. I've played around with Siri just to see how she would respond to certain statements and she never ceases to amaze me. I said "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and she replied "the sound of that is something quite atrocious". Perhaps I'm easily amused, but I'm happy with it!

Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure Review

Disney Pixar Adventure game for the Xbox Kinect is absolutely amazing!!  I don’t think people can grasp “your body is the controller” until they actually try the game themselves!  If you want your character to run, then you run in place.  If you want your character to jump, then you jump…and so on.   I am completely blown away by this game and how much fun it is!  I had guests at my Rush party ranging from 5 years old to 40 years old and everyone loved it!! 

There are different worlds you can enter and each one is a blast!!  You can enter the worlds of Cars, Toy Story, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and UP.   My oldest daughters and their friends loved driving in Cars.  My second youngest loved being Remy in Ratatouille.  She used her arms to climb, throw things, and zoom down a zip line.  My brother and husband favored the Incredibles because they became superheroes.  They would have to use their bodies to ski down hills and jump in time to make it onto the tops of buildings where they would then fight villains by throwing large objects at them.  My youngest couldn’t pick a favorite, she said “they are all the best”.

I ABSOULTELY LOVE this game.  Children have to use their entire bodies to play instead of just fingers and thumbs.  It is one of the better Kinect games that actually requires you to move, and doesn’t allow you to succeed with minimal movement.  I actually think my kids get more exercise with this game than they do playing outside. 

*Disclaimer - I received the item mentioned above, free of charge, for review purposes. In no way did this alter my opinion of their products. All of my opinions expressed in this post are one hundred percent honest and true.*

Creative Gift Giving!

What do you get the person who has everything?
 A gift they never knew they wanted!!!
I love shopping for those unique gifts that most people have never seen.  How could one add something to their wish list if they never knew it existed?  There are tons of websites that offer great, crazy items.  Could you imagine the look on that special someone’s face when you hand the world’s largest gummy bear??

Or how about a melted clock? (I especially love this one!)

Where were IPOD's when I was growing up???

For Christmas my oldest daughters each wanted an IPod touch.  So my husband and I let them open every single gift under the tree and watch the disappointment as they did not receive the biggest gift on their lists.  They then moved on to their stockings, which were usually filled with candy and dollar store items.  However, this time in the toe of the stockings was the IPod Touches they asked for.  I couldn’t understand why such a strong desire for another IPod…was it because it was a touch screen? 

 
They immediately transferred the iTunes to the new IPods, and nearly 9 months later, I have yet to see a day they don’t have it with them.  I think this is one of the best purchases we ever bought them.  It wasn’t like past gifts that I frantically searched and fought for on Black Friday (such as the Wii Fit) only for it to be shoved under the couch a month later and never be played with again. 

The IPod Touch 4^th generation is much more than a MP3 player.  It has a camera that allows still pictures as well as video.  It allows you to Tweet and Facebook.  It has a HUGE market of applications that can be downloaded, many of which are free.  My ultimate favorite application (I believe it was already preloaded) is “Facetime”.  It allows you to have a video chat with someone that could be down the hall or even across the country.  I was impressed with the video quality and the speed!  The girls have downloaded so many games that the wait at a doctor’s office is no longer intolerable.  I, too, became addicted to Angry Birds while waiting for the test results regarding my daughter’s appendicitis.  The IPod touch can be educational as well; they have downloaded scientific calculators and apps to learn Spanish as well. 

Overall, I give the IPod Touch 4^th generation five out of five stars due to its capabilities.  I would strongly recommend a 32 GB or 64 GB because the 8 GB can be used up pretty quickly with all the pictures, games, and music that is available.  I’ve seen my girls drop their IPod Touches more than once, and yet they are still going strong.  So durability is another plus; however, I wouldn’t recommend dropping it to find out.


Apple iPod touch 8GB (4th Generation) - Black - Current Version

Apple iPod touch 32GB (4th Generation) - Black - Current Version

Apple iPod touch 64GB (4th Generation) - Black - Current Version