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Lovable and Cuddly Pajanimals

Posted by 278Wife on December 13, 2012
in Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Reviews, TV Shows

I grew up watching The Muppets, so I was so excited when the show, “Pajanimals,” from the Jim Henson Company and Sprout came on television for my son. The show is on everyday and it is one we record regularly. A few days ago when we received our package of two of the Pajanimals, Squacky and Apollo, my son could not wait to play with them. These very high quality plush characters are very soft and perfect for sleeping and cuddling. The 15″ plush is perfect for a toddler and the 9″ plush is perfect for a baby, 18 months and over. Both are extremely soft, have bright eye-catching colors, and look just like they do on TV. My son’s favorite part is that their tongue is in the shape of a heart.

They are available in two different sizes, the 15″ and the 9″. There are four different characters to choose from. Apollo is a green dog with purple pjs, Cowbella is a white cow with purple pjs, Squacky is a blue and yellow duck with polka dot pjs, and Sweet Pea Sue is an orange pony with pink pjs. Also available in their Pajanimals line is a Snuggle Up Story Mat that shows all of the Pajanimal characters and has a soft book that turns into a pillow.

Overall, these plush characters are absolutely adorable and my son is completely attached them. He will not go to sleep without them! They are lovable and cuddly Pajanimals.

Faith and Family Reviews reviewed the following website in exchange for membership access. While we consider it a privilege to receive compensation for reviews, our thoughts and opinions are our own.

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TVGuardian

Posted by html404 on December 5, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Movies, Techie Stuff, Technology/Electronics, TV Shows

I don’t know about you but if I had the opportunity to have a filter for foul language and sexual content I’d probably watch more TV with my family. The American Family Association just sent out an email featuring TVGuardian, a filter doing exactly what I want it to do. However, it is not available for online streaming (Netflix, Hulu etc.). We don’t have cable or satellite, or even a TV for that matter, as we do most of our movie/TV watching online from our computer. So in an appeal to garner more interest in sites offering online streaming I am blogging about TVGuardian to recruit any of you using online streaming to contact the sites you use to ask them if they would consider getting TVGuardian. I have tried contacting ClearPlay to see if this is something they would be able to do but have never, ever even received a response.

So if you are a person who utilizes online streaming sites, please appeal to those sites to offer TVGuardian as a choice because until there’s a need these sites are not going to do anything. IMHO. (in my humble opinion.)

Nope this is not a review or paid ad. I wrote about this out of my own interest. I have no idea how well it works but if it filters out any foul language I’m in, as film producers are slipping more and more into movies these days. It isn’t cheap but I think the cost is worth it in the long run.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

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Party Time with The Amazing Spider-Man! #SpiderManWMT #Cbias

Posted by html404 on November 3, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Movie Reviews, Movies, News Worthy, Reviews, Shopping

Ever since our first post about The Amazing Spider-Man our children have been eagerly anticipating hosting our party and watching The Amazing Spider-Man movie, which is due to be released on DVD on November 9th. It took us four different extended invitations before we found some guests available and interested in coming to a Spider-Man themed pizza party and each time our children asked, “Is so and so coming over?” so they were pretty excited when we got the yes.

We went party shopping at Walmart and bought fruit – we made carmel apples – veggies, Spider-Man themed party supplies and Marketside pizza. Walmart will be releasing Amazing Spider-Man themed Augmented Reality triggers that will be included on the pizza box & display pallet, triggering special Amazing Spider-Man experiences on the iPhone, iPad or Android in-store, especially for shoppers.

I found that playing hostess with people outside our household didn’t give me or my daughters the same freedom or time in snapping photos of everything and anything due to taking care of my guests. I tried though.

We ate first before going down to our basement to watch the movie.

The Amazing Spider-Man Movie

All the younger children waiting for the rest of the adults to watch the movie. Sorry about the dark photo.

The adults were upstairs talking and enjoying quiet conversation while the children were downstairs waiting. We interrupted them to get a group picture.

If you read my previous post, you know that we took advantage of the pre-order opportunity to get a digital download of Spider-man on DVD or Blu-Ray on Vudu.com. I also set up an UltraViolet™ (UV) account, which “is a new movie industry standard that allows you to securely store your digital movie collection in the cloud.” We really like online streaming technology.

The Amazing Spider-Man is rated PG-13, unfortunately for families with young children. I wish I had watched it in advance. I naively thought “Spider-Man…what could possibly be wrong with it” and neglected to read the rating, I should have known better. There were a couple of scenes I quickly had to cover up. A brief glimpse of one scene made our 10 year old son say, “That scene on the subway was unnecessary.” And guess what? He’s right.

The movie wasn’t bad, if you haven’t seen it yet, but a lot of the story line was changed if you are use to another version. Even the children noticed since they’ve watched the animated version. We tend to not like new changes.

After watching the movie we gave our younger guests The Amazing Spider-Man goodie bags and they left for home since it was getting late. We thoroughly enjoyed entertaining and look forward to the next time.

Friends talking

For additional information about The Amazing Spider-Man upcoming DVD release, check out Twitter (use hashtag #SpiderManWMT) or Facebook.

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment #CBias #SocialFabric” (Feel free to add any additional wording you would like such as “all opinions are my own”)

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Roads by Chris Mann #Roads

Posted by html404 on November 2, 2012
in Downloads, DVDs & CDs, Reviews

I had the opportunity to listen to Chris Mann’s Roads album today. I have seen his name around but cannot say for certain I remember hearing his voice or music before. My oldest daughter and I were having a discussion on what kind of music it was and we couldn’t decide. I finally just looked at the digital download site to see how it was categorized. We were kind of surprised it is considered Pop, but I guess many of the songs are Pop so it makes sense. I just looked online again to see it also categorized as Opera, adult contemporary, pop, operatic pop. To us it was different. Different in a good way.

About Chris Mann
‘
Chris was on the second season of the show, “The Voice”. A show I have yet to watch, as you all know we are X-Factor fans. He was on Christina Aguilera’s team and she told him, “I feel the heavens open up when you sing.” From all reports apparently the whole country agreed, for when the series ended, not one but two of Chris’ songs were on iTunes Top 10 Pop Singles Chart. His album Roads was produced by Produced by Keith Thomas (Amy Grant, Vanessa Williams). Those are big names, eh?

Roads Review

Just to be clear to all of our Christian readers, this album is not a faith or spiritual album. That’s not to say the music and lyrics are not uplifting because they are. I found it very relaxing. I really like the richness of Chris’ voice and I love the song Roads. My daughter, who was up late with me, really liked it too. She’s a music connoisseur like her father. They both like a wide range of music. Music is very important to our family, but especially to these two peas in a pod.

If any of you are music lovers and are looking for something new to entertain and tantalize your ears, then please go to iTunes (http://bit.ly/SgkwJb) and/or Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/XQpJc8) to listen to samples of Chris’ music. His voice and his album get two thumbs up from us!

Roads by Chris Mann was just released in full this week.

This is a review post from One2One Network. I was provided with a copy of the album and I am eligible for a prize drawing. All opinions stated are my own.

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Emily Owens MD

Posted by html404 on October 12, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Reviews, TV Shows

Emily Owens MD is a new show premiering on October 16th. It is about a new doctor, Emily Owens, acclimating to a new hospital where her “idol surgeon” works. The premise of the show is that Emily now feels grown-up and feels she can finally put her nerdy teenie boppy ways behind her. Little does she realize that the hospital, Denver Memorial Hospital, is just a grown up version of high school.

Emily Owens is played by Mamie Gummer, of “The Good Wife”, and is also the daughter of Meryl Streep and Don Gummer.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed the highly entertaining and emotional evoking pilot episode I recently had the opportunity to review. I’d rate the language as PG-13+, which is disappointing but I get that I am a rare bird when it comes to stuff like that. Due to the adult content I won’t be allowing my younger children to watch it, however, my oldest watched it with me and really liked Emily Owens too.

But don’t take our word for it watch the promo:

Funny, eh? I laughed and cried throughout the show. I loved the sensitivity of Emily’s bedside manner as a doctor, but developed a very strong dislike for a couple of characters who seemed bent on making life difficult for Emily. See what I mean about the show appealing to the emotions?

Be sure to check it out for yourself on Tuesday, October 16 from 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT on the CW Television Network.

The NY Times wrote up a nice piece about this new TV show here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/arts/television/the-new-season-mamie-gummer-of-emily-owens-md.html?_r=1

To learn more about the show visit the following links:

Emily Owens MD: About the Show
Emily Owens MD: Official Website: http://www.cwtv.com/shows/emily-owens-md
Emily Owens MD on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyOwensMD
Emily Owens MD on Twitter: http://www.cwtv.com/thecw/twitter#eomd

Faith and Family Reviews received a promo copy of the pilot show in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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TuneIn Radio – FREE Radio Online

Posted by Brande on October 4, 2012
in Deals, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Music, Techie Stuff, Technology/Electronics, Thrifty Thursday

Music is such a huge part in our lives. It cheers us when we are down, it relaxes us when we are tense and it allows us to create new memories with family. Talk radio also use to be such a huge part of family lives. Remember the Waltons gathering in their livingroom around the radio? Before television that’s what families did for home entertainment.

Looking for a free radio source you can listen to online? I discovered TuneIn Radio. It is free local, international and Internet radio.

Head to TuneIn, where you can listen to radio stations for FREE on your computer! No money, No accounts needed. Of course, you can sign up for an account to save your favorite stations. They have local radio to your area, music, talk and sports! This is one of my new favorite sites! They also have apps to download as well.

Check it out at TuneIn.

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Pre-Order The Amazing Spider-Man Gift Set #SpiderManWMT #Cbias

Posted by html404 on September 29, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Movies, Uncategorized

After the success of last week’s Avenger party, my children are very excited about The Amazing Spider-Man coming out on DVD too. They’ve been asking me to watch Thor, The Avengers etc. with them. Now that I have Captain America under my belt they are eager to introduce me to the rest of the movies in the series. We may get to watch one of them this weekend depending upon if I get my posts done up for the week since I leave for Brandcation on Wednesday.

Pre-Order The Amazing Spider-Man

When the children heard we were going to go to Walmart to pick up the pre-order The Amazing Spider-Man DVD or Blu-ray they were pretty eager to go with me. One son said, “Really?” He was surprised but happy. My four year old son was very excited because I told him he could have a new spider-man mask since his little fabric one that came with his dollar store spider-man costume is all torn.

I took five children with me to the store. It’s funny because they gravitated towards the costumes they saw last week and of course discovered new things. Then there was this huge pumpkin decoration with crazy eyes that my youngest daughter calls, “Hypnotizing”. It cracks me up what children come out with.

Of course on our way back to the electronics department we got side tracked in the party supply aisle as the kiddos remembered we went down there last week too. We noticed a couple of new Avenger items which disappointed the children because they were not available when we shopped for our Avengers party, but there was lots of Spider-Man supplies to choose from.

Then we found the pre-order spider-man item and it was completely different than I thought it would look since I had in my mind the photo on Walmart’s website. I thought the exclusive movie gift set came with an actual mask, but it doesn’t…eeeeks…..there’s going to be a disappointed boy if I don’t fix that!

So off to the toy section to pick up a sturdy mask the boys can share but Nookie can use first. Hoping to surprise him in the morning with it!

And before I headed out for a seminar today I gave Nookie the spiderman mask….I think he looks pretty pleased, don’t you?

Vudu.com and Ultra Violet

With the pre-order of spiderman we received a free digital copy of the movie on Vudu. Once we got home I wanted to see what the whole pre-order process was like and figure out Vudu.com and Ultra Violet because I’ve never pre-bought anything like this before. Vudu.com is a site where you can stream, rent or buy DVDs – for multiple devices too. They even have a tab to convert DVDs to digital format, which I haven’t tried yet, and you can store them online. I definitely see advantages to this as we have had several DVDs get broken and had we been able to store them digitally right after we bought them we would still have them. Vudu charges for individual DVD rentals and conversions. It is not a monthly subscription service. You only pay for what you use or buy.

I am still trying to figure out what Ultra Violet is, but from what I can tell it is another site that allows consumers to stream movies and TV shows with multiple devices. Here’s what their FAQs page says:

UltraViolet is a free, online Collection that gives you greater flexibility with how and where you watch the movies and TV shows that you purchase. Once a movie or TV show has been added to your UltraViolet Collection, you will have options to stream it over the internet, download it for offline viewing, or play it back on a disc. Because UltraViolet offers so many viewing choices, you have greater freedom to choose where you want to watch – whether its on a mobile device, computer, television, game console, etc.

It was pretty simple to sign up for a Vudu account. I followed the prompts on the screen, some of the steps are shown in the photos below.

We are all set to watch the digital version of The Amazing Spider-Man and we should receive the Blu-ray + DVD gift set a few days before the movie hits store shelves. My children are already talking about a spiderman party!

To learn more about The Amazing Spider-Man or to stay up to date on news about the movie be sure to follow on the movie on Twitter and Facebook. If you do tweet, use the hashtag #SpiderManWMT to increase visibility and hopefully help the movie trend on Twitter.

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Our Awesome Avengers Party #MarvelAvengersWMT #CBias

Posted by html404 on September 23, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Movies, Uncategorized

Last Tuesday night our family was able to enjoy a very fun evening, except my husband who has been struggling with cold/flu like symptoms the last few weeks – found mold behind our washer. Anyhoo, the children and I all headed out to Walmart to shop for supplies for our Avengers party! Did you know The Avengers Blu-ray/DVD release is this week? Yes it is! I haven’t watched any of the new Marvel movies but my husband has watched a few of them with the children, including The Avengers. They get excited about all things Avengers and super heros. My goal was to enjoy an evening of fun with my family.

Shopping at Walmart

Before we went shopping, I downloaded The Avengers Augmented Reality App. There is a quiz, a place to join The Avengers, a game, a place to scan product. The kids love the game and music on it. I watched a video first to help me understand how it worked. The problem is we were only able to get it to work on the Marketside pizza boxes because there were barely any displays were up in promotion for the movie.

On the pizza boxes The app basically provided a 3D scene from The Avengers, my kids are pretty tech savvy and loved it.

Due to the lack of promotional signage available, we were unable to find any of the app’s trigger points so we could participate in earning points. We tried scanning the sign at the deli counter as well as the video display they had there for other Marvel movies but nothing happened. The sign at one of the entrance’s didn’t work, nor did any of the tags on the apparel we looked at.

I was hoping our Walmart had everything I had in mind to create an awesome Avengers party and you should see what I found!

We bought The Avengers party plates, cups, napkins, balloons, candy (not something I normally buy but this was a special occasion so we indulged), masks, a punching ball, prize ribbon and tattoos. We even purchased a couple of packages of super hero figures for the children to share and play with. These were part of the prizes I got for our game time. I was trying budget my money wisely because costumes were $9.99 and up, I couldn’t afford to get them each their own individual costumes, so we settled on them each having a mask which worked out great and it was so fun – I even wore one.

The children were so excited in the toy section, another section we usually avoid so we keep the gimmees at bay. There were lots of Avenger toys, figures and Legos to choose from….gave me a couple of ideas for Christmas. They were too expensive to get on a normal day out, that’s why we settled on the inexpensive action figures, plus more children could play with them than they could one big action figure/or toy that cost $15-$25 each.

Our Awesome Avengers Party

We purchased Marketside pizza for dinner. It’s very good. We were pleasantly surprised as it is very filling compared to other pizza we have tried. We enjoyed our meal together before heading down to our basement family/playroom for an evening of games showing super power strength and agility.

I divided us into teams and we played three games: whose team could keep a balloon in the air the longest, who could do the punching ball the longest and who could make the most words out of the word Avengers in two minutes. Then I handed out prizes to the winning team, the child who did the punching ball the longest and then each of the younger children received tattoos and super hero figures.

We ended our evening by watching half of Captain America since it was 9pm when we started it. We finished it the next day.

The Avengers Graphic Novel

Our children also enjoyed getting The Avengers Graphic Novel, though my daughters did report a couple of inappropriate/swear words, which was unexpected and disappointing for something geared towards children.

The Avengers Blu-Ray/DVD/Graphic Novel Combo Pack

The Avengers Blu-Ray/DVD/Graphic Novel Combo Pack was not in our Walmart store when we shopped last week but I can see how it will be a nice gift to super hero fans. It retails for $24.95 and will also be available on September 25.

To learn more about The Avengers visit Marvel.com Fans will want to follow Marvel on Twitter (use hashtag #MarvelAvengersWMT) or Facebook .

Overall our Avengers party was very memorable and the children told me how much fun they had that evening and again the next day. Guess it was a success!

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Marvel. #MarvelAvengersWMT #CBias #SocialFabric. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

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Family Movie Night and Snacks #Snacks4WimpyKid #CBias

Posted by html404 on July 31, 2012
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Movies, Uncategorized

Our family really enjoys watching movies. We enjoy a wide variety of movies from super heros to Ann of Green Gables. It has been a while since our whole family viewed a movie in the theater; probably a couple of years ago when we went to see the Tooth Fairy at the Wednesday Morning Movie Series – when they offer movies for $1! It’s a pretty cheap outing for our family. The guys in our family saw Courageous last year. However, we’ve seen no movies release in recent months. It would be kind of fun to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which is coming out in a few days. My older daughters and I have watched one of the others and laughed and laughed. I have sort of banned my boys from seeing the whole movie due to the rudeness etc. they seem to pick up on so easily – they come out with enough potty talk all on their own! They have seen clips of DOAWK though and loved it, of course.

Here’s what some of our family might look like in the DOAWK series:

Artwork compliments of our children

When we watch movies at home, our preferred movie snack is popcorn. We make it the old-fashioned way in a pot on the stove. However, when we go out I tend to make them eat something before we go out. Yes, to save money because snacks at the theater are pricey for ten people! I usually like them to eat healthy snacks, like fruit or something and Del Monte Fruit Cups are perfect for traveling or eating at home before going out. They are easy to offer as a healthy dessert after a meal too. There are two different kinds of fruit cups. One is in the produce section and the other is in the canned fruit aisle. We chose the one in the produce aisle as the ingredients seemed healthier and there was no added sugar. Apparently, these are different than the Fruit Cups as they are called Fruit Naturals, which I didn’t know until now. Oops. We have tried the Fruit Cups, just in May as a matter of fact, I just prefer snacks without added sugar or sugar substitutes, like artificial flavors, which I did not see on Walmart’s shelves in the Fruit Cups section, unless I missed some labels as I had already put the Fruit Naturals in my cart.

Robert’s aunt just sent us some money telling us that she’d like to see us use it for something fun and a Del Monte DOAWK family night would be perfect. That or go-carting and mini golfing. Maybe we’ll plan on doing all three to help celebrate the winding down of summer. August may turn out to be a busy, but highly entertaining month for us!

If you are planning on going to the opening of the new A Diary of A Wimpy Kid consider tweeting about it or Delmonte fruit cups as healthy snacks and please remember to use the hashtag #Snacks4WimpyKid and @DelMonteFoods

Watch Del Monte’s Facebook page for an upcoming Diary of A Wimpy Kid’s contest and be sure to enter too!

Do you have family movie night? What’s the last movie your family saw together? What snacks do you usually eat?

“This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.”

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Over The Moon – The Broadway Lullaby Project

Posted by Brande on July 29, 2012
in Books, DVDs & CDs, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giving Back/Charity, Kids Stuff, Music, Parenting, Pregnancy and Birth, Reviews, Shopping

My daughter and I went on an inspiring and peaceful musical journey with Over the Moon – The Broadway Lullaby Project and I invite you to join us. This book and CD are not only fantastic for bed and nap time, it is very calming for adults also.

The Book – Over the Moon – The inside cover says it best…

It’s often said that “a picture speaks a thousand words,” that “music is the universal language,” that “all the world’s a stage,” and that lullabies fill the special place where babies and those who love them come together.

I’ve never read such a true statement. This 48 page hardcover book is beautifully illustrated and written by many artists, each donating their time for the Over the Moon Book and CD. The CD is attached to the back of the book.

The CD – Pop this 2 CD set of 13 songs each in your player. Sit down and close your eyes and let the music take you on a voyage. The calming flow of the music will take you and your little one away on a mini vacation. All the artists on the CD have beautiful melodic voices, including Vanessa Williams.

As is said earlier everyone has donated their time for Over The Moon-The Broadway Lullaby Project, which will raise money for breast cancer charities including the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Yound Survival Coalition.

Visit the Over the Moon Website to purchase your collaboration today! You can also visit them on Facebook and Twitter.

This is such a wonderful book and CD. My daughter and I have listened to the CDs many times and we have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of them. Perfect for a new baby or baby shower gift!

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.