T-Shirt Embellishment 2

I embellished another one of my Old Navy T-shirts! This is the shirt before--pretty plain.

 I cut off a few inches from the bottom and made some ruffles!

After: A ruffly neckline. I have never worn a style of shirt like this before but I think I like it. It definitely  makes the shirt pop! 

BAM Diapers: They're here!!

My sewing machine has been humming away this week! The first BAM Diapers are done! I absolutely love how they turned out. The colors are vibrant and the inside is so soft. 

 These red and green diaper actually belong to my friend Amanda's little girl. She pre-ordered and is officially my first customer. Thanks Amanda! I hope you love them. :) 

 A peek inside. The soaker is made of organic Bamboo/cotton fleece. It is so soft--like the inside of a brand-new sweatshirt. 

 The second layer of the soaker is cotton flannel in a cute print. The print varies per diaper and adds a fun and cute element to each one. 

These three diapers are for sale. I have both sizes  (10-20 lbs/ 20-30 lbs) in all four colors: red, yellow, blue, green (see above). 

Wishful Spelling

I will do a long post about our SURPRISE TRIP TO KANSAS soon but I wanted to share this quick story about the boys before I forget....

We were flying home to VA yesterday and were served yummy Delta ginger snap cookies. The letters D E L T A are printed on the cookie. I decided to SEIZE THE TEACHABLE MOMENT and have Micah name the letters on the cookie.

Me: Micah, can you name these letters?
Micah: Sure! D-E-L-T-A
Me: That spells "Delta"
Micah: No, Mommy. That spells "cookie"

HAHAHA! Gotta love that kid!

(the really funny thing is, I had some leftover cookies on our next flight and asked Benji do do the same thing. He had the EXACT same response (no-mommy-that-spells-cookie). Sheesh! You would think they were twins or something! ;)

Graduation Celebration!

Yesterday I celebrated my MA in English. Liberty doesn't host a December graduation (when I actually graduated) so I walked in the May graduation. It was a wonderful day!

 On Friday I received surprise flowers from my siblings and parents!

 My parents came in from KS on Friday night to come to the ceremony on Saturday morning

 My supportive husband, Aaron

 My wonderful best friend, Candace

 Mrs. Towles, my boss while I was a GSA and a wonderful support to me while I was getting my degree 

The squirrly kiddos on graduation morning. No, we did not take them to the ceremony. But we all had fun wearing the mortar board that morning. :)

I am so happy I got my MA. It really has defined my life, given me direction, confidence and purpose. The day I finished my degree I blogged about it here. I literally cried tears of joy. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done--but also one of the most fulfilling and satisfying. The ceremony yesterday was simply the icing on the cake. 

BAM Diapers: Special Preview!

Welcome to a first look at BAM cloth diapers! I have sewn diapers for my boys but starting this month, I will be sewing diapers to sell to other cloth diapering families. These diapers do a wonderful job of keeping in the messes and they don't leak.

I love this style of diaper! I used them on both my boys for over two years. I purchased the pattern from diaperkit.com (sadly, this WAHM is going out of business).

Here is a sneak peek into the details of a BAM diaper:

A waterproof PUL outer layer in bright, beautiful colors. 

 Check out these beauties: Sunshine Yellow, Apple Red, Aqua Blue, Grass Green

 Inside: Two layers of soft cotton. 

Soaker layer of organic bamboo/cotton. Bamboo is perfect for cloth diapers. It is super soft, doesn't retain odors like 100% cotton can, and is extremely absorbent.

 BAM diapers have a tri-folded soaker for 6 super absorbent layers for even the heaviest wetters. The soaker is sewn on one end. This means no un-stuffing a soggy (or worse!) diaper and eliminates the labor of stuffing a soaker in a diaper before you put it on your baby. 

This a true All-in-One! 

Plus, the unique tri-fold soaker flows free in the wash to get extra clean. 

An extra plus? This diaper dries in one drier cycle!! 

(Left: 10-20 lbs; Right: 20-30 lbs)

 Simple hook and loop closure "grows" with your baby. No messing with snaps in the middle of the night. 

Hook and loop doubles over for a snug fit on even the slenderest babies, but it also fits chubbier tummies and thighs as well!

 Modeling the BAM diaper

 What a happy boy! 

Want to pre-order your BAM diapers? Choose from one of the four the colors above, 

10-20 lbs OR 20-30 lbs. 

Cost: $16 each

Thanks for checking out this special preview of BAM cloth diapers!

Please email me if you have any questions or to place your order: bmeng@liberty.edu

Meng Menu

Sorry that I've been slacking in the menu posts lately. It's been a busy last few weeks--I've graded over 200 papers in the past week and a half! WHEW! All done now though! YEA!

Here is our menu this week:

Sunday: Grilled pork ribs, smashed potatoes w/bacon, cheese, green onions, green beans w/garlic butter
Monday: Hot dogs, chips and dip, apple slices
Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas, refried beans
Wednesday: Homemade pizza
Thursday: BLTs, potato wedges, carrot sticks
Friday: Pan seared chicken, rice w/ pan gravy, green beans

Family Fun: Tubing!

This past Saturday we decided to devote some time to having fun as a family--something we don't do enough! After dinner we took the boys up to Liberty Mountain (on the campus of Liberty University) to SnowFlex--the only year-round ski slope in the USA! The ski slope is made up of plastic bristles--people always say it reminds them of a giant toothbrush--that is made slick by an underground misting system. The result? You can ski, snowboard or go tubing year round! 

The had a special on Saturday where everyone could tube for $1 all day! WOOT! 

 After riding up the moving sidewalk with the tubes, we sat in a line and waited for our turn to go. The boys were SO excited--and delighting everyone around us with their exuberance. 

 Each person had to ride in their own tube but we were able to tether them together. Aaron and I each took one twin down the first two times. 

 Benji: Having a blast! 

It started off slow but got REALLY fast by the end. We even caught some air!

Micah: WOO HOO!!

The 3rd time we went, we hooked all four tubes together. It was amazingly fast and hilarious! So much fun! We will definitely be doing this again!

After tubing we got ice cream at Sonic and then watched a baseball game going on at LU while we ate our sweet treats. It was getting pretty chilly by this time of night (8:30ish)--plus we were wet from the tubing AND eating ice cream--so we didn't stay for long. Overall, we had an awesome family fun night.

Note to self: do this more often!! 

T-Shirt Embellishement 1

I have long admired the creativity of other bloggers who jazz up plain t-shirts. Well, this weekend, I did a little t-shirt embellishment of my own!

Before: A plain T from Old Navy. It was only $8.50 but SUPER long on short-waisted me.

After! I trimmed the extra length off and added some cute embellishment to the bodice. The strip down the middle is the hem of the shirt. I had the buttons in my button box. I love how it turned out! It adds a little extra something to a plain T. Aaron actually thought  I had purchased the shirt this way! (Thanks hon!  Compliment appreciated....though I think it does look a little homemade....Oh well!)

A picture is worth 1000 words OR My life as a mother of twins

(it took two adults to get this off)