my little pony

we had been wanting to buy isabelle a small rocking horse for quite a while, but never really got around to doing it. since mario has a special talent with woodwork, he decided to surprise isabelle one day she came home from school. after doing some research, a little bit of planning, some wood, and a few hours in the garage, this is what he came up with...
after some spray paint and a few more hours later, this is the finished product...

sunshine and smiles

the weather was pretty rainy for most of october and as soon as we got a quick break, outside we went! isabelle loves being outdoors and this was the perfect day. the sun was bright, there was a slight breeze blowing through the air, and isabelle was in an extremely good mood. i always talk about how difficult it is to get really good shots of isabelle because she either won't stay still or her attention is too indulged in what ever it is she's playing with to look at the camera, but on this day, i got lucky!

boxy lady

boy, do i have a lot of pictures to show...let's start with these...
this picture was taken at 6:30 in the morning so please excuse that mean look isabelle is glaring at the camera. even though it was early, i felt it was a necessity to capture her cuteness because it was the first time she allowed me to put her hair up in pigtails!
so moving on...here is isabelle playing the piano with alex...so freakin cute!
one of mario's favorite past-time sports is boxing so it is almost written in isabelle's future to box at some level. he started out by showing her how to put up her "dukes" and eventually she found his boxing gloves. the gloves weigh more than her, but she was bound and determined to put them on...

lots of toys

isabelle has a lot of toys, but doesn't play with the majority of them. we keep them in a big toy box in her bedroom and the only time she pays any attention to them is when she has other kids to play with. on this day, she was unusually interested with the big toy box so i took advantage for a quick photo opportunity...