"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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Ok, so it's not just me...

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I have seen the one with trying to guess how big the belly is (only using string, not tp).  But I told my family absolutely NOT to that game.  I felt big enough as it was without people measuring me.

I have also done the game with melting candy bars in the diaper.  That is actually really fun, and everyone seemed to like it.  It looks so gross, and we told people you could look and smell, but no tasting!

I have also seem a nursery rhyme one (I'm not sure where it was printed from, but maybe you could google it).  It gave clues and you had to guess which nursery rhyme it was.

Also guess how many safety pins in a baby bottle. 

Best wishes and have fun!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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Father, I come before you i...

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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You did such an awesome job on both cakes!  You are creating some fantastic memories for them! 

My mom always did amazing things with making and decorating our cakes.  I feel like I don't have quite the same talent that she has, but it's still fun to try.  I need to go through and post pics in my photo album of some of the kids cakes.

Unfortunately, Emma decided last year that she doesn't like cake.   (She actually doesn't like ice cream either.....I'm not sure that she's really mine! lol)  So last year we made chocolate chip cookies.  I think this year we might do brownies, which could be cute, but she doesn't want frosting on those either. sigh

But she did have some cute ones earlier.  She had one cake that was literally COVERED with little plastic animals (giraffes, elephants, deer, cats, rabbits, you name it).  Another year she wanted to get a pack of the sugar decorations.  They had flowers, princesses, etc.  She choose the aliens and space ships.  And black writing that said "Happy birthday dear Emma".  But hey, it was exactly what she wanted, and that's what really counts.

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I can understand people being upset about the bus driver touching the student, but I can also understand that this was a major safety issue.  The driver is responsible for the safety and well-being of all of the kids on the bus.  She can't have kids just randomly getting off the bus because they suddenly decide that they don't want to be on the bus anymore.  Yes, I do think that there were probably better ways for the driver to have handled things (and there definitely should have been help sent right away!!!).  But the girl's behavior was completely inexcusable.  There would be MAJOR consequences if our kids were acting like that!  There is absolutely no excuse for that.  And like Holly said, you could see her playing to the camera and her friends, trying to make as big of a scene as possible. 

I am SO VERY thankful for our bus situation:  Emma is one of the very last on/first off.  And even better, her driver is our next-door neighbor/friend/pastor.  He has been called the "mean" bus driver because he simply doesn't tolerate bad behavior on his bus.  But in the end, the kids have a great deal of respect for him.  He is NOT mean in the sense of being rude, demeaning, etc.  He just doesn't tolerate bad behavior, and the kids know this.  So, again, we are so thankful!  I know that Emma is in good hands on her way to and from school.

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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My mom had an ectopic pg and her tube ruptured.  (She did have severe internal bleeding, but they caught it just in time.)  But she did have one tube intact and she did have my sister a few years later.  I am not aware of any miscarriages in between, and I know that my sister was a bit of a surprise, so it didn't appear to be too much of a problem for her.  So, it should still be possible, but you might want to talk with your ob.

And if you are not able to have another, there is still adoption, like Mary said.  That can also be a wonderful thing.

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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ROFL

That is so cute!!!!  That totally sounds like something that could happen here.  At the time, you just don't stop to think about the situation because you are so focused on how cute and sweet they are being.  It is definitely all part of the experience, and we wouldn't trade it for the world!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I would also agree with not ignoring it.  There are basically 2 types of behavior that we find annoying- there is just plain accidental, childish behavior, where they do something that we don't really like, but it was an accident and related to their age (spilling thing, making a mess, etc).  But then there is willful defiance- when they know the rules, and go out of their way to do what they are not supposed to.  It sounds like this would definitely be the case.  If they didn't know that a certain word is not acceptable, that's different.  But when they know it's not ok and look right at you and keep saying it, in our house there are definitely consequences.  It might not seem like a big thing, but if you let them get away with breaking smaller rules, they will keep testing more and more rules.

At our house, if they say a bad word for the first time (not knowing that it's not allowed) we tell them that is not a nice word, and we don't say that.  We then remind them that if we say naughty words (or lie or spit at people) they get soap in their mouth.  I just put a little dab of liquid soap (not anti-bacterial) on their tongue, and in less than a minute I give them some water to drink.  It doesn't take much soap or much time to get the message that this is not pleasant.  Our kids would MUCH rather have a time-out or even a spanking than soap.  So, it's been pretty effective here.

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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That's a great suggestion on getting little gifts for the big sib to give when the baby gets a present.  I would definitely check out the dollar stores, etc. 

Emma was 26 months when Timothy was born.  I did end up taking her to most of my ob appts just because it was easier than getting a sitter.  She LOVED going with me (for a while, she would cry if we drove past the dr office without stopping there).  Mostly, I agree with everything other have said.  Just making time for them, and getting them involved as much as you can, but don't force them to participate.  Emma was really never very into babies.  She would VERY occasionally play with her baby dolls, but preferred animals.  When Timothy was born, she didn't really pay much attention to him (until he started to crawl and became a threat to her stuff/personal space).  But yeah, don't worry about it.  When the time comes, it will all work.   Best wishes!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

glitter-graphics.com ...

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

glitter-graphics.com ...

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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