Bringing up Allie

Besides two little stocking stuffers for Allie and Alex, Aubrey, and Ashley's gifts for my family's gifts exchange, I'm finally done Christmas shopping. I already know exactly what I'm going to get the kids so it's just getting out and actually purchasing the couple things I need. I didn't have the chance to hand make anything for our family's gifts this year, but everything is personalized for each person and I'm so excited! I can't wait to see everybody's faces.

I did a ton of shopping on Etsy this year. And I took the kids Christmas pictures a couple days ago so I could make photo gifts. They turned out awesome. I was terrified that all of them would be pissed the whole time but everyone cooperated perfectly.

Thursday Allie, the babies and I went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago with my mom and sister. It was our Christmas gift from Sarah. Allie had such a good time. To me, after about the third tank, all the fish start looking the same, but Allie stayed interested the whole time. She's such a little genius when it comes to animals. It's pretty cool when you hear your 3 yearl old naming off the specific kinds of fish and whales. Especially when you don't even know their names. I had to keep looking at the info plaques to see if she was right or not. She was right just about every time.

It was our first big, all day outing with the twins and everything went really well. It helped that they had a really nice nursing room for the mothers. (If you ask me, I think that should be standard every where). Raymond only had one freak out but other than that, things went great. Makes me feel a little more confident.

Yesterday we had a Christmas party to go to with the truck driving family. It was a really good time. I just love hanging out with them. I love that we hang out outside of work and all the kids get along. Plus it's an added bonus that I actually really like all the wives. It's a breath of fresh air knowing that I can hang out with my husband, his friends, their wives and bring the kids and everything will go great. I can't wait until Loren is done with the Union and is back driving. I miss it and I know he misses it even more.

Nothing major is planned for this week. I'm hoping to get most of the Christmas wrapping done and at some point I need to find a recipe to take to my family's Christmas Eve party. My Aunt decided to make it an Italian themed dinner this year so I have to find something that goes along with that. Why are we having an Italian themed dinner and not just the regular turkey, ham, and mashed potatoes type dinner? Your guess is as good as mine. I would definitely prefer the norm. Why fix what ain't broken? Hopefully we get a house big enough to host the dinner ourselves next year.