What We've Been Up To

Bad blogger right here.  I think December might fall under the worst blogging month I've had since I started this blog about 2 years ago.  Busy, under the weather, and a big amount of company for over a week all contributes to that.  SO, here's a quick recap of what's been going on for the last week and a half:

(1) Christmas:

Liliana got a copious amount of gifts for Christmas!  We had a pretty big amount of company staying with us and they stayed for nearly a week.  Let me tell you, I think I need another vacation from that vacation!  I took a 2 hour nap the day they left.  And honestly, I could have napped for 5 hours.  Liliana LOVED Christmas this year.  In fact, she wanted to unwrap every one's presents.  I don't think she cared as much about the actual gift as opposed to unwrapping things.  Her favorite gift?  The one Santa brought her! (yes, we're those kinds of parents that only bought her one thing.  She won't remember whether we got her anything or not!  We're cheap, what can I say?)  We got her that little kitchen at a used toy store here in town.  It's fabulous.

Look at all the gifts under that tree!  Those are pretty much ALL for that little girl.  She is SO loved by lots and lots of family members.

Liliana looked awfully cute throughout the holidays too.  She had lots of cute outfits, but we unfortunately weren't great at capturing the pictures.

(2) Vacuum:

Last week, THE DAY before the company arrived, my vacuum cleaner started smoking.  Literally, smoking.  I love vacuum cleaners.  I have a slight obsession with cleaning and seeing how powerful they are.  Don't know why, but it's by far my favorite household chore. SO, apparently, it was time for a new one.  I wrote a facebook status asking people what to buy and the vast majority of people recommended a Dyson.  Here's the problem.  On the 23rd, Evan and I bought each other our super duper romantic Christmas gift: a new air conditioner unit.  $900 later, (thank goodness for home warranty company because otherwise it would have been $4000) we obviously didn't get each other Christmas gifts. And, we obviously don't have $500 to easily dispose of after that $900 payment.

SO, I still needed a vacuum.  My main criteria was something that I could easily clean the stairs with.  Our old one (I'll refer to the old one as Smokey from now on), Smokey, was HEAVY and ridiculously difficult to carry down the stairs while cleaning (my stairs are carpeted). 

I was about to check out at Walmart and had a pretty crappy vacuum in my basket and then I saw this:

The Shark Navigator Life Away Pro.  When I saw it in the store, I immediately Amazoned it (something I do with nearly every purchase).  It had REALLY high reviews and was $20 cheaper in the store than on Amazon. 

The main selling point?  You can lift the canister off the bottom and carry it around while vacuuming which only ends up being 8 pounds!  That totally works.  AND, it has a duster attachment that works wonders too.  I definitely approve.

Those two things mainly summarize the last 10 days of my life!  Yep, a vacuum cleaner got 50% of the post.  What can I say?  It was a great purchase!