Merry Christmas!

Joan loves Christmas! She's so jolly and never naughty... She loves to get into all of the presents under our real tree at home and I'm pretty sure I've heard her say "Ho, ho, ho!" We drove down to Louisiana and have been spending the last two weeks celebrating Christmas with both sides of our family. One thing's for sure, she must have been a very good girl this year because she got loads of presents! Over the last two weeks, Joan has really grown up. She's definitely on the go now that crawling is under her belt. She's even pulling herself up into a standing position. I'm trying to delay walking as long as I can because I'm not looking forward to chasing her around the house. I can tell she's not going to be one that wants to just sit around... Well, we hope you enjoy some snap shots of our holiday partying!

Joan's first Thanksgiving

We were blessed to Have Uncle Art, Aunt Chloe, Poppa John, and Gigi join us for Thanksgiving this year! We had a lot of fun, Mom baked her first Turkey and it turned out great, or so I'm told... I only got to eat peas and squash. I played with some new toys on the floor and enjoyed sitting in my bumbo that my cousin Emily is letting me borrow. Everyone took a good nap after lunch, including me. Then, on Friday, we put up our Christmas tree and we all decorated it together. I'm thankful for my wonderful family and I can't wait until Christmas!

Lambchops and Peas

October was quite eventful for the Landry family. We introduced Joan to her first spoonfuls of peas, carrots, green beans, and coming soon - squash. Hopefully she'll develop better taste buds for vegetables than her parents... Joan is also starting to rock back and forth on her hands and knees in preparation for crawling and she's able to sit up by herself for a good bit. I took Joan to Louisiana for a quick visit and we also spent a weekend in Dayton, OH with Art and Chloe. Even though we didn't have any Trick-or-Treaters at our house (we forgot to put the outside lamp on), everyone at ISU's Catholic Center really enjoyed Joan's lamb costume. Our costumes weren't as elaborate - just contestants on "The Price is Right." Another huge milestone for Joan was cutting her first bottom tooth - just in time for Thanksgiving! I hear jarred turkey is delicious! Turkey won't be the only treat - Gigi, Papa John, Art, and Chloe will be joining us in Bloomington for Thanksgiving, also.

Towards the end of October, I worked part-time at ISU's Catholic Center for a few weeks. It took Joan most of that time to get used to other babysitters, but by the end she really warmed up and enjoyed herself. Some students offered to babysit Joan for free, right there at the center and I was able to be in the same room with them while I worked. I'll be doing some more part-time work there in January when classes resume. Well, enjoy the photos and videos and be sure to check back after the holidays for more fun stuff!




The following video isn't very long, but it's kind of funny.
No babies were harmed during the taping of this video

6 months already!

Joan turned six months old on Nov. 5, and we celebrated this week with a trip to Doctor Boe and a photo shoot! She now weighs 12 lbs., 10 oz. and is 24 inches long. As everyone knows, she is small for her age, but is very healthy. She is improving everyday in sitting and crawling. Joan had to get 5 shots and she was not happy! I had to carry her through the doctor's office screaming and hollering. She definitely got everyone's attention. Friday we brought her to a portrait studio and got some wonderful shots of her. I would like to put them up here but I might just keep them as a surprise for everyone. She is sleeping very well, usually about 10 hours every night, so Mom and Pop are very happy about that. The video above proves that we are willing to make total fools of ourselves to make Joan laugh. Please Enjoy!

Joan in Chicago

Joan decided to accompany my class to Chicago on the train to see an international poster exhibition in the park. She had a good time, despite the several photos you see of her crying. She's still getting used to other people holding her.

Naked Baby!!!

5 month fun

army crawl

Joan may be small, but she is strong! I'm pretty sure she'll be walking soon. Here she goes straight for Mom's walet - foreshadowing?

The Nursery

We know, it's about time we put pictures of Joan's room up. As you can see, she's got great pieces of artwork surrounding her and a huge collection of literary classics... Jude designed the 2 posters above her crib with a little help from me and he also painted the dove canvas and drew the letters in her name that we both painted. It was my idea to cut scrapbook paper into squares and mount them on white foam board. I think they make a nice touch.

Joan decided to visit the coolest twins in town, Jameson (rock) and Joseph (roll) McGraw. We put her in between the two of them to see which one she would choose. We'll let you decide which one she wants to date.

She's already trying to crawl!

Here is a fun clip of Joan trying to crawl, but only succeeding at lifting her little booty in the air. Be sure to watch her right hand - she does this with every surface she touches.

September Pics

These are some random photos of us and Joan around the house during her fourth month. Enjoy!

A Cajun Bath!

Enjoy this little video of us giving Joan her bath in the living room! Yes we're weird, we know.

Vacation Videos!

Here's a clip of Gigi giving Joan a bath.


Here's a clip of Joan practicing for the World Cup.

I'm Catholic and Cajun!

Joan's Baptism was so beautiful and it was a pleasure sharing it with all of our family and friends in Louisiana. Thank you to everyone who made the trip to New Iberia! While we've been down, Joan has gone to a crab boil, a bayou boat ride, and a barbeque at Uncle Mark's house! We also took Joan to Arkansas with the Guilbeaux's. She had so much fun with her cousin Emily and meeting the Chachere side of the family!

Who wants to see a happy baby? Sorry the video is sideways, I turn the camera later in the clip. We're leaving for Louisiana in 2 days! I've got to get the grass cut and start packing.

I don't know why we didn't do this sooner, but we will begin posting videos on the blog as Joan becomes more entertaining. Please enjoy this video of Joan beginning to pick up her head! By the way, Joan is now 9 lbs. 6 oz., and 22 inches long. She's small for her age, but that just makes her so much cuter! We are looking forward to our trip home to Louisiana next week to get Joan baptized and introduce her to the rest of the family
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Summer Fun

We have been so blessed this summer! Jude has had the summer off and we've been able to relax and play all day, everyday. We mostly hang around the house until we get the motivation to go for a walk or join our friends at the park. Check out the links below to view photos of our fantastic summer!

Joan Meets the Family

She's Here...

Joan is amazing! She was born on May 5th at 4:11pm, weighing in at 7.5lbs and 20.5in long. We went in for her induction at midnight and around 5:30am my water broke on its own. I received the epidural sometime later and went from 4 cm to 9 1/2 in about an hour and a half. I started to push around 2:30pm for an hour and a half and Joan was here. It was incredible! She has long dark hair in the back and the very top and is already showing her deep cute dimples on each cheek. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and we'll keep you posted!

Baby Shower Bliss

It was such a blessing to come back down to Louisiana for my baby shower - especially because the temperature was about 50 degrees warmer than Bloomington! Thank you so much to everyone who was able to make the shower! We hope you all had a great time and we really appreciate all of your generosity! So far we've already ordered Joan's crib bedding and crib, and we've also bought a stroller and car seat as well as a bouncy chair. It's been really fun buying her things and once we get her room together, we'll post those photos, too!

A bun in the oven...

Here are my prego pictures! As you can see it took some time for me to really start looking pregnant - I think right around 5 months parents at school finally noticed I was pregnant. Enjoy...

Welcome to our blog!

We are so excited about starting a family and we thought this blog would be a great way to share our joy with you! Here's a picture of Joan when we found out she was a girl, around 19 weeks. We were just a little surprised because we thought that with all of the girls in our families and because all of our friends were having girls, our baby might be a boy... Either way, we're really blessed that she'll be coming soon and we're so thankful that everything looked good in the ultrasound.