8 Months Old

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!! I am writing to you from Portugal where I am spending the holidays with mommy, daddy, the grandparents and my uncle!! Oh, and everyone else in the family who I have met for the first time. I had a great time on my first plane ride here and was excited to meet the rest of my family.

Since I have been here I have been enjoying my vovó's food and cuddles and my vovô's games and miminhos! Christmas day with all my presents and my family around me was full of joy and laughter and found out that my uncle Jorge is really funny and playful! I can't wait for him to babysit me! I also met my two cousins Mariana and Leonor who gave me lots of fun toys and also great books that they had used when they were my age!

Portimão is very pretty and has incredible beaches. We went for a walk on the beach and I saw the ocean for the first time! It's HUGE! I can't wait to get back here in the summer!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my grandparents' house to meet me. I really enjoyed seeing everyone and I met lots of boys my age too! Enjoy the pictures!!

7 Months Old

Hello everyone!!

7 months and counting!! Here are a few more pictures of me during my stay in New Orleans for Thanksgiving!! I hope you enjoy them.

I now know how to crawl so well that I can cover most of the living room in just a few minutes and scare my mommy and daddy quite often because they can't find me quickly enough,....hehehehe

I giggle when I look at myself in the mirror and enjoy being on my daddy's shoulders. It's high and much more fun up there!

Oh, and I discovered animal crackers and I love to make huge messes with them....they are soooo tasty!

Take care everyone, and see you next month!

6 Months Old

Hi Everyone! So I am half a year old! All grown up...and loving every minute of it. I now weigh 15 pounds 15 ounces (6,8 kgs) and am 25 1/5 (64 cms).

Here is what I can do now:

- I sit straight for long periods of time and try my best to stand up but always fall flat on my face.

- I like to eat my new foods: I love bananas, prunes, squash, carrots, and of course peas!!

- I really enjoy when my mom takes me for walks in the park. I just sit quietly and enjoy the view. Ozzy comes with us all the time! He is my best friend!

- I can't crawl yet. It's too hard. I just roll to the left or the right and eventually get there.

- I grab everything I can reach and stick it right in my mouth...it tastes weird, though.

- Everyone says I am such a happy little girl because I smile and laugh at everything and everyone. Especially my daddy, he is so goofy!

- I am wearing my Halloween costume in one of these pictures. I am a bunny rabbit called Pinky.

- In the other picture I am wearing the LSU football team cheerleading outfit. That's my daddy's favorite college team.

See you all in a month!!

5 Months Old

Five months!! As you can see I am growing well and healthy. I love my new walker even though I can only touch the floor with the tip of my toes. I don't like to lie down at all and I recently figured out how to sit for longer than a minute!! Things look a lot more interesting when you are sitting or standing up. Hope you like my new pictures!

Osborne Family

Here are a couple of videos with Joana. The first one is with John and I when Jojo had just woken up. The second one is with grandma Pat helping her dance and shake her little booty.

Have fun!

4 Months Old

Four months!! Time flies when you are having fun and it is pretty obvious Joana is having a blast.

She spent this month with her grandparents from Portugal, Victoria and Jorge, and loved every minute of it!! Here are the most recent updates on Miss Jojo:

Loves: bath time, TV (lots of colors and action) and having someone to talk to.

Achievements: can roll on tummy and roll back, grabs bottle (not securely, though), keeps head and back straight for long periods of time and has discovered that her hand and fingers are pretty interesting.

Weight and length: 13.14 lbs (5,9 kgs) and 24.5 inches (62,2 cms)

Fun facts: Joana always wakes up quietly and smiles when we go to get her from her crib. Loves to be changed and shows it by constantly flaling and cooing. The best part is that she doesn't cry much at all (yes, I know we are very lucky).

3 Months Old

Hi everyone!! As you can see, Joana is enjoying smiling and laughing more and more each day. She now has a new favorite blankie that has a bunny face she can hug and gnaw on. She also likes to hang out with Ozzy and especially enjoys his cushiony body. He doesn't seem to mind at all. In fact, I don't even think he knows she is leaning on him :)

Jojo loves bath time. She constantly moves her arms and legs and smiles when we cheer her on. Do we have a swimmer in the making?? I think so. She has also discovered TV and enjoys waching it with mommy and daddy. She is growing so fast!

My First 4th of July

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to share the cute outfit Joana wore for her first 4th of July bash!! That's Jojo with Britney, her first babysitter.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July with our friends Laura, Barbara, Roger, Dawn, Stacey and all the kids!! We barbequed and swam in the pool for hours and, though the picture may show that she was hating the experience, Joana actually enjoyed her first swim after crying in daddy's arms for a few minutes.

2 Months Old

YEAH!!! Happy two months birthday, Jojo :)

She now weighs 10 pounds ( 4.5 kilos) and is 22.5 inches long (57 centimeters). She loves hanging out in her swing and falling asleep in it with her arms up...always up. She has recently found out that smiling is really a lot of fun and has started cooing more and more each day, especially when she is hungry :)

Family Osborne Snapshot

This picture was just too cute to keep it all to ourselves!! It was taken of Father's Day.

1 Month Old

Hi everyone!! It's Joana's first month celebration :)

She is growing strong and is incredibly alert. She is curious about sounds and shapes and is very healthy.

Precious moments with mommy and daddy

Needless to say that we have both enjoyed spending every moment with our new bundle of joy and we study every movement to make sure we will remember them forever. It's so exciting being a parent and we are looking forward to the many years we will have together.

Jojo´s First Week

Our little girl´s first week has been wonderful.

Little Jojo doesn´t cry much, except when her poopy diapers are being changed.

As you can see, she is very quiet and peaceful. We are lucky parents indeed!!

We love the first picture where she is being cuddled by her three loving cousins (from left to right) Tyler (11 years old), Dylan (8 years old) and Jace (7 years old).

We hope you enjoy these adorable pictures and thank you all for the sweet comments about her. We love reading them! :)

Introducing Joana

Welcome to the world, darling, mommy and daddy were dying to meet you and now we are thrilled you are finally here in perfect health and cute as a button :)

Important facts about our little princess:

Full name: Joana Victoria Paulino Osborne

Nickname: Jojo

Date and time: Born on April 25th, 2008 (Portugal's National Freedom Day) at 7:07 in the morning (lucky number 7!!)

Sign: Taurus (two against one in the house now...go girls!!)

Weight and length - 7.12 pounds (3.2 kilos), 19.5 inches long (49.53 centimeters)

Hair - brown.

Eyes - possibly green but it is not clear yet.

Appearance - ADORABLE!

Mood - calm and easy going.

Early achievements - Doesn't cry much, likes to be talked to, and learned how to breast feed quite quickly. :)

Baby Joana's Butterfly Room

Here is our baby Joana's room.

There is obviously a picture of her closet that has more clothes than mine!! And yes,....lots of pink.

I will make sure that the next blog has her first pictures as she is getting ready to greet the world in about two weeks!!

And now Texas

Here is our new house in Terrell, Texas, about 20 minutes from Dallas. We are renting it for as long as we need until we find our dream home. And yes, that's our dog posing in front of the house...showoff!! We are excited to start this new stage of our lives in Texas and have a great feeling that raising our new family here will be a very positive experience.

Katrina's Aftermath

This is how most of the city looked, especially in the Lakeview area, Midcity, and the 9th Ward.

The kid carrying the kittens attends Jesuit High School, where I teach English and Spanish. The school was also affected with almost 8 feet of water and many teachers and students' families lost everything. Many of our students, though, were absolute heroes rescuing people and pets during and after the storm.

The Katrina woes

On August 28th, 2005 Katrina, a Category 3 Hurrican hit the Gulf Coast and affected New Orleans in a manner that will be remembered for ever. This was our house in Marrero, Louisiana all boarded up and ready for Hurricane Katrina. We were very lucky. W

e only had roof damage and the house did not flood at all. However, only a few blocks behind us, closer to the back of the neighborhood, many houses were flooded and seriously damaged. Amongst them, John's grandmother's house, Mawmaw O.

We went through Katrina at Uncle Terry's and Aunt Denise's house 25 minutes away from our house. Two weeks with no running water and one generator and LOADS of food taken from all the fridges of his relatives' houses in the neighborhood.

We are very thankful our house was spared...the same couldn't be said for the rest of the city though.

By August 31, 2005, this is what it looked like. 80% of the city was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.5 m) of water. The city had gone through the worst disaster in recent history, but it pulled through, recovered and has risen for the water a better city.