Random December Photos

Zachary hanging out with the girls at our ward party

Daphne loves shoes :)

The best way to eat spaghetti = ALL OVER!!!

Dark eyes

Lights

Zoo!

Last year for Christmas, I gave my dad a gift certificate that said the kids and I would spend the day with him.  Now that it's almost Christmas again, we finally did something!  We took the kids to the zoo, and although it was cold and half the zoo was under construction, we had a great time.  Daphne was kind of grumpy, and every time I pulled my camera out she would say "No Cheese!!!"  It was kind of frustrating, but still really cute.  The tigers were by far the favorite for both kids, and I apologize for the fuzzy video, but it's hilarious. 

No Cheese!

Awesome picture

Don't remember what he was being grumpy about, but a classic picture anyway

I borrowed my dad's zoom lens and took this picture from the other side of the park.  Pretty cool!

Wheat thins make things better

My big-eyed girl

True to form, the playground was their favorite part

Daphne, which one do you want?  All of them!!!  (she finally decided on the monkey, or he-he as she calls it)

Setting up Christmas

It's always fun to haul out the Christmas stuff and start decorating, and this year was no exception.  We have a new tree this year, and Zachary was excited because it was a REALLY BIG one.  :)  The kids had a great time helping me decorate the tree, and surprisingly enough they have since basically left it alone!  One of our favorite decorations is a reindeer that sings, and the kids love dancing to it.  Merry Christmas everyone!

My goofy boy

ummmm....

They were holding hands and watching the train go around the tree.  So cute!

Photography is so much fun!

Dipping Chocolates

Every year at the end of November, my family has the tradition of dipping homemade chocolates.  We make all the centers, and end up dipping thousands of chocolates by the time we're done.  It takes about 4 full days to dip, and I always have great intentions of taking good pictures, but that never seems to happen.  I did play with my new camera this year, and although I didn't get very many pictures of people, I got some tantalizing ones of the chocolates....

We teach them young :)

This is my favorite picture

Daphne was only happy when she was sitting on Grandma's lap, forcing my mom to do some yoga-type moves to dip the chocolates.  I love the expression on Daphne's face!

Leaves!

Once again, I love fall leaves, and I am having a really fun time learning how to take great pictures.  Zachary's getting tired of me always having my camera out, but here's some cute ones!  (After we were done taking pictures I got to jump in the leaves too!)

Love this one!

Awesome action shot

I tried a throwing leaves shot and one of them actually worked!

More Halloween :)

A few days after Halloween, the kids and I were playing in the front yard and Zachary noticed the pumpkins still sitting on our porch.  He turned to me and said, "Mom! We never carved our Pumpkins!!!"  I tried to talk him out of it since Halloween was over, but he was quite insistent.  So that night we carved our two little pumpkins.  Zachary had fun helping, and he actually cut his face out all by himself (with a little bit of guidance, of course).  He thought it was so cool when we lit the candles and turned all the lights off, and then I got a little carried away trying to get some good pictures of them....  It was a fun night!

Zachary's scary pumpkin

Daphne's pumpkin that Daddy carved :)

Here I had fun playing with shutter speeds.  This one is fairly slow

A little faster

And just about right for a cool pumpkin look!