Bad Math and Halloween decisions

I was re-pinning a sugar cookie pin on Pinterest and thought to myself, I really need to bake more sugar cookies so I can use all the 100 cookie cutter shapes I have... Brilliant! But reality knocked on my mental door and gave me some hated math:

Sugar cookies + Tafra + no restraint = Additional 5 pounds on hips/stomach per batch

I hate math!

My baby girl is now 15 months old, I am about 26 weeks pregnant and I still find myself wondering how all of this could be real. I had to overcome my first Halloween dilemma—I didn't dress M up when she was three months old—which boiled down to, how do we, who profess to know Christ, participate in a pagan holiday with our little girl while still holding to our beliefs?
I debated this for the month leading up to it. My husband grew up trick or treating, I did not. Yes, unbelievable as it may sound, I never trick or treated as a kid. My parents took my to the church fall festival and I got candy, but I never dressed up, never went up and down our streets asking for candy.
And really, I don't think I was better off or any worse than the kids that did.
So, at first I was going to do the same: What's good for the goose is good for the gander. After a discussion with my mother (Would you change your mind and let me? She said yes.), I was torn. I still didn't think it was that big of a deal. In the end, with a few rules (1. Costumes will never, ever be gruesome or violent, 2. There will be no trick or treating past age 12), we dressed the M Bug up and she went out with her cousins to collect candy.

AJ, CJ, M, and HJ (both girls were lady bugs!)

I also want to share this opinion piece from Focus on the Family's Jim Daly, because he sums up  how I feel about Halloween.
Thanksgiving, on the other hand, I'm looking forward to! My MOPS group had a speaker in to discuss traditions, and because my family is relatively tradition-less, share some of your traditions with me. I'm going to compile and pick a few I like to implement for my family this year. Thanks for your help!
 

November?!?

I've been using things off Pinterest a lot lately, and I decided to share my recent results 1. Because I haven't found the time to blog lately and 2. Because if you try it, at least you may not get the crazy results I did!
First, here's my ice cream cone cupcakes:

There were no actual directions (I'm a big fan of directions! Surprised? Probably not.) For my trial run, since I'm going to make these for a bake sale, was to just use plain ol' Betty Crocker cake mix, and I poured it into my cones at various heights to see where I needed to be. Clearly, my cones runneth over!
After this, I did find a Pinterest post that said to put the cones upside down over the cupcake batter, and though I might try that, I'm not really sure how they would bake well? If you've done this, comment and tell me how you did it!
Next was the Halloween popcorn, which was entirely unnecessary but cute so I made a fifth trip to Walmart to grab candy melts, and gave it a shot.

I'm not a food photographer, so I'm sorry this image is from my iPhone and just plain sucks, but the popcorn actually turned out fairly well! I ditched it at my sister-in-law's house (thanks Gwen!) because I had already eaten quite a bit. Popcorn may be a good snack by itself, but add some candy and candy corn, and it stops being a healthy snack.

People keep asking me if my little M has noticed my belly or understands she'll have a brother yet, and the short answer is: No. She may pick up on the belly the farther along I get, but even though we tell her she's going to have a baby brother, concepts are not quite something she grasps yet.
Others are also quite interested to hear how I plan to deal with the jealousy: One day at a time! The idea of having two children and dealing with what may or may not happen with M is something that I can't quite grasp, just like I couldn't grasp what it would be like with a first child until she actually arrived (Thank you Jesus for equipping me with the skills I didn't know I had to be a mom!)
The only way to look at it is, one day at a time! I want M to know she's loved every day of her life, and I'll do what it takes for her to understand that when her baby brother arrives (who is unnamed as of now). It's the best I can do as a parent!

You know you're a parent when: crayons pop up in unexpected places, like the bathroom tub!