Flattered

It's been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flatter and if that's really true than boy am I ever flattered. :) This has been Homecoming week at school and the spirit day yesterday was "Teacher Day". I had heard that a few girls were coming as me and so I secretly borrowed a uniform and decided to come as them. I've always heard "oh, you look so young - you could pass as a student", but the uniform put it over the top. Kids were mistaking me for a student, I sat in a pre-cal class for SEVERAL minutes before the teacher (my co-worker!) realized and was told that if I really was a student I'd get asked to Homecoming (ewww).
Apparently all you really need to be Mrs. McAnally is a Starbucks cup, dress and jacket/cardigan of any variety.
There were several versions of Mrs. McAnally including "dress and boots Mrs. McAnally", "dress and wedges Mrs. McAnally", "Maxi Dress Mrs. McAnally" and "cute shirt with a scarf Mrs. McAnally" :)


What cracked me up the most were my 7th graders - they've only known me for 5 weeks and already have me down to a tee!

I was SHOCKED by how many Mrs. Mcanally's were running around campus yesterday - these pictures are only a few. I'd get yelled at across the courtyard... "Hey! I'm YOU today!" :)

It was such a fun day - so fun to see all the little Mrs. McAnally's and so fun to get to sport my uniform and pass as a high schooler (some said junior high, but I'm going to give myself a little more credit than that and say high school). The best part of the day though, was the reminder that I'm obviously making an impression (and a lasting one, at that!) on my students. I'm just hoping that they can remember the Pythagorean Theorem and Quadratic Equation as well as they can remember what I wore last week. :)

Typical

This picture is a great example of most "typical" pictures we try to take together...


No ones looking, Masons chewing on my hair, cars on the table, typical. ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Photoshoot Fail

Last Sunday I tried to get a cute picture of Luke after church... it didn't work out so much :) "Look, Mommy! I'm going to jump!"

"Aren't I so silly doing exactly the opposite of what you're asking me to do?!?!?!"

Natural Consequence Exhibit A: Maybe next time!

Levi William McAnally

My brother-in-law, Matthew (one of Dave's younger brothers) and his wife Stefan welcomed Levi William on Friday. He is absolutely adorable and perfect and looks JUST LIKE HIS DADDY!

(I cropped myself out of the picture below because Friday was a LONG day and by the time I made it up to the hospital I was lookin' a little rough - plus, lets be real... you want to see the baby, not me!) Mason made the visit with me and he was SUPER excited to meet his new cousin - they're 5 months apart and I have a feeling that these two will be wreaking havoc on family gatherings together in just a few short months :) Congratulations, Matthew and Stefan! Welcome sweet Levi!!!

Making Himself at Home

Last Saturday night my parents, Luke, Mason and I headed to Mansfield to have dinner with Diana (my brother's girlfriend) and her family at her parents house. The food was delicous, company was great and Luke made himself right at home. He and Noah (Diana's nephew) got along great and Luke talked about playing with Noah all week. Luke literally INHALED a cupcake after a few minutes of swimming...

Mason got a little pool time in with Uncle Mark: And then Luke decided it was time to show off his jumpin' skills :)

My mom had the camera and thought it would be a good idea to take candid shots of me (hahaha).

I posted this for 2 reasons - 1) I think my hair looks good (I got about 3" cut off a few weeks ago) and 2) I think I look a lot like my Auntie Sandy (who reads the blog and I wanted her to see).

Luke doesn't know a stranger and after swimming with Uncle Mark for a while announced that he would "like for Uncle Mark to throw him to another grown up please" At some point in the evening, Luke got out of the pool, walked to the fence, pulled his pants down and peed right into the Bennett's yard. To say I was embarassed is an understatement - but they were super sweet about it (even when he did it a second time). He made himself right at home!

Color Clip Game

I am officially addicted to Pinterest (although... my iPhone App hasn't been working this week, so I haven't been on as much as normal) and one day while browsing through everyone's fantastic ideas I came across one that looked really easy and right up Luke's alley. I stopped in at Lowe's, picked up an assortment of paint chips and whipped up this game using scissors, some hot glue, and clothes pins I already had... Luke and I talked about colors and "shades" of colors and it's been non-stop fun ever since. He asks to play the "color game" all the time and not only is it great for him to learn to match the shades, but working the clips is a fine motor skill as well.

It was crazy easy, didn't cost me anything and has kept him really entertained. YAY!

Dish Towel and Drool

If you're wondering why my sweet Mason is laying on a dish towel it's because he's drooling like no one's business! It's a good thing this little slobber monster is cute, because the number of onesies and bibs I'm having to wash is about to make me go insane!

He has his hands in his mouth all the time and we thought he might be teething, but I've felt around in there and haven't been able to feel anything.

:)

Lookalikes???

People are always saying one of two things - 1) That Luke and Mason look EXACTLY alike (I don't see it AT ALL!) or 2) That Mason looks just like Dave (I don't see that either). I think that the photo below (of me and Mason) prove everyone wrong :)

Tiny Hands

Last Saturday morning I decided to take my three boys to Walls of Clay to paint a Halloween plate. I never thought I'd be, but I'm totally one of those sappy sentimental moms who goes gaga over anything with her kids handprints all over it. I used the line, "but their hands will never be this small ever again" to sucker Dave into coming along to create a "Halloween plate". Don't they all look enthused to be there?!?!?! Luke picked green for his handprint and then we did Mason's teeny foot in orange (we were going to do his hand, but couldn't get him to keep it flat long enough). Don't worry - the colors don't look like this anymore - once they glaze and fire it it comes out bright and pretty.

After luke did his handprint and helped me decide on stripes he moved on to more important things - like playing on my iPhone :)

When we were done we headed outside and I tried to take a few quick pictures of my sweet boy :) Such a HAM!

I picked the plate up yesterday and it looks AWESOME. I'll take a picture of it when I get all of my Halloween decor stuff out. CAN'T WAIT!!!

Similar???

I snapped this picture of Mason on Monday, September 5th and immediatley remembered a picture that I snapped back in May that I thought was SUPER similar. So here it goes...

September 5, 2011 May 7, 2011 He has the "sleepy" look in both pictures and it's amazing to me how much his coloring and amount of hair have changed! Still as cute as ever! I'm going to have to try and take a similar picture in another 4 months. :)

Dimples

Darling Dinnertime


Dimples

Mustang Football

MCA's first home football game of the season last night and so I packed up my boys (and my help for the evening - Haha) and we headed out to the game. Luke ate dinner before we left, but it seems that like me, the highlight of any sporting event for him is the food - he ate two GIANT iced cookies (thanks, Haha!), a bag of cheetohs and some M&Ms that he got from one of my students - AND he kept saying that he was still hungry! :)

Luke was much more content to stay in "our area" than he was last year and he was super cute when he met a lot of my students, parents and other faculty.

Mason was all smiles until the crowd started cheering and then he got startled and cried a bit (but he recovered quickly).
Mason got passed around a lot and ooohed and awwwwed over :) This is my new favorite picture - me and my guys :)

(wish I'd noticed that Luke's hat is all crooked, but oh well) On our way out we ran into a bunch of my junior high kiddos (because when you're in JH you don't go to the game to watch the game, you go to hang out in the parking lot, right?!?!!?) Better than all the food, football, cheering, etc - I think that the highlight of Luke's evening was the pile of gravel that he found on our way out. He would have sat in the dusty, dirty pile all night if we'd let him. The funniest part was that one of my 8th grade students saw him and commented that he wished he had a car with him because he wanted to get in the dirt with Luke :) I guess they don't change THAT much even when they're 14.

We're looking forward to MANY more mustang football games this season - hopefully with MUCH cooler weather :)