thanksgiving week

We had our second Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday when we met Sammi at her school to have Thanksgiving lunch with her. The school prepared all of the wonderful food for any parents who wanted to join their kids and we had a ball visiting and eating! 

Sammi hadn't been eating much or feeling well though and this was the evening that the school thought she might have pink eye by the end of the day. We didn't want to wait until morning so we spent the evening at urgent care. We are so glad we did because she had it in both eyes! We spent the rest of our night disinfecting everything we own. Just three hours after her first eye drops the doc said she wouldn't be contagious anymore...how crazy. And they did really seem to work immediately. She had no signs of infection by morning. Whew! 

On Thursday we headed to the annual Brand Family Thanksgiving at Tim and Cathy's housein Fort Wayne (Dan's aunt & uncle---the ones who own DeBrand). Dan, his sister Jenny, and brother Steve, decided to be twinsies (tripletsies?) and all wear green!!!! Ha ha ha....what a coincidence!

There is ALWAYS a LOT of dessert at Brand family functions. Too many talented bakers. :)

With all of the people and commotion upstairs, you could still find Sam glued to Mickey Mouse in the basement.... sometimes I think we just need to throw all of our TVs out!!!

She was very intrigued by these singing, dancing Christmas characters.

She especially liked the rapping Santa. :)

There were a lot of kids toys around for her to play with and hide in.

It's always nice to catch up with all of the Brands. :) Thanks so much for having us over, Tim and Cathy!

And that brings us to today, which is Friday...we've had tons to do at home and haven't taken a restful day off in months so we decided to stay home all day and just be today. We started working on Sammi's new room (finally!) and got some things done around the house, including LOTS of black Friday shopping on the internet for Christmas presents! I'm sooooo glad this stuff is all starting to get done!

This was Sammi and our loft/living area/playroom after a day of being home! Toys everywhere and random clothing choices, all put on by Sam herself!

And the latest on Sam.....she has absolutely 1000% hit her terrible twos!!!! My goodness....she reaaaallly wanted the camera as I was taking these photos...

And when she didn't get her way IMMEDIATELY, she dropped to the floor and dramatically threw the biggest fit ever! And this was one of about ten fits, 3 spankings, and 4 time outs today alone!!!!! She has certainly been exerting her independence lately but today was by far the worst of it so far. What happened to my ever-so-sweet, perfectly behaved little angel!?!?!?! 

We are trying to nip this behavior in the bud right away---while still loving on her like crazy----but the instruction manual that came with her when she was born seems to be missing! :) :) :) Ha ha ha....if only there was such a thing.....but life wouldn't be nearly as interesting or rewarding if that were the case. :)

Love and hugs and happy weekend!!!! WOW---we still have a weekend ahead of us! YAHOOOOO!!!!!!