The Traveling Kilpatrick's

We're back! Roadtrip 2011 was a huge success. We were certainly glad to be out of the car...but so glad we did it!
First though, the weekend before our road trip we were in St. Francisville for our annual Kilpatrick Reunion. We swam and had lunch and then headed back home. It was a fun day for all.
Me and my man!

Return of the Super-suit since I wasn't lifeguarding.

Sweet swinging girl!

My baby boy!

On our way back from St. Francisville we got to cross the new bridge! Yes, only a true Louisianian can get excited about a bridge but HoLy MoLY! it is beautiful. Until now, if you wanted to go from St. Francisville to New Roads you had to load up on a ferry for a ride across the Mississippi. No more, now you can just drive over this guy. It is the longest suspended bridge in North America. I couldn't get over how pretty it was. From a distance it looks like it is made of gold.


I know...I need to get out more.
On to our roadtrip.
Or not, I'm actually going to do a whole different blog about it b/c for some reason this one won't save.
Traveling Kilpatrick's...to be continued.

All in one! It's a long one!

We made it! It was the longest and hardest 10 weeks ever, but we did it. Quick trip down memory lane... Jordan took a job in Shreveport and started the first week of March. I stayed back with the munchkins to sell the house, finish out my school year and pack. Jordan came home on the weekends. It was brutal and I think I've blocked quite a bit of it out. I do remember showing my house 6 times and all that entailed. Thank goodness we sold it fast or that may have done me in. I unexpectedly had a tooth extracted that took 3 hours. Part of my bone had to be removed and the root was in my sinus cavity. OUCH. I was awake for the whole thing. I then proceeded to have an allergic reaction to my much needed codeine. Jordan had to do an emergency trip home. I was still in a ton of pain the next weekend...Easter. I went back to find out I had a dry socket and also found out that hydrocodone makes me throw up...a lot.
My life for 10 weeks. It was a wreck.

At the beginning of April we did a trip up to Little Rock to see my grandparents. A family friend of ours, Mrs. Lesa, had been doing some house hunting for us and told us about a house in Stonewall. Seriously, it was the first and only house I stepped foot in. I loved it. It is in a great neighborhood and has a HUGE yard. We had a contract on it that week. A few pics...
This could be a dining room but I'm using it for a little sitting room/office space.

My sister and I did this mural in Maci's room. And guess what...She sleeps in it...finally! I painted 3 of the 4 bedrooms the first week we were here. I'm pooped from painting.

I love the bathrooms. The kids cabinet has claw feet on it. We said farewell to the sharks and made it more neutral for Maci!

I LOVE my bathroom too. I painted my room this same color.

The living room is huge. Here are the kiddos watching star wars. Poor Maci. I'm having a guy in Canton build me a big thing for my tv to go in. Hopefully it'll be done in July. I have to re-upholster my chair and find another one...this room is going to take some time.

We came up for spring break so I could do some job interviews. Last week I signed my contract to teach 2nd grade at Calvary Baptist Academy next year. Hurray! That is the school I was hoping for. The boys and Maci will all go with me.


In May, the week before we moved we planned a quick trip to Florida. (Sidenote *No pics b/c a while back I forgot to unpack the camera out of my suitcase and it lived in the attic for a while then it was thrown out of the top of the attic by Jordan. Not sure what did it in. But it's done. I got my new camera after our Florida trip.) Anywho...Florida was beautiful. But before we left for Florida Jordan came home a day early to surprise us. He wasn't going to make the Florida trip b/c he had some outside things to do but he came home early so he could come. He was about a mile from our house and a drunk driver pulled out in front of him. Jordan was going about 45mph and nailed him. He was pulling a trailer that we were going to use to move and there was no way he could stop. He didn't even have time to hit the brakes. He was okay (thank goodness) but his new truck was TOTALED. To make things more wonderful the drunk guy took off running and he was also uninsured. Awesome. He was caught and jailed but it left us in a huge bind. We ended up renting a car for a while and then we had to rent ANOTHER moving truck. Then when we got up here me and the kids had to bring Jordan to and from work...4 trips a day...he works about 30 minutes from here...for 2 weeks. Thankfully we had comp. coverage on the truck and our insurance paid it out. Of course they don't pay what the truck is worth if you buy it retail so now we have a lovely car payment that we didn't have before. I HATE drunk driving. This has been such a headache and expensive. It could have been worse and I am so grateful Jordan wasn't hurt badly.
We celebrated our 8th anniversary on June 7th! Us about 8 years ago. Jordan's 'fro.

My sweet girl, who is not so sweet right now b/c she is growing her 2 front teeth, is 9 months old today! She crawls everwhere, pulls up onto her knees, and says da da da da da all day long. She bounces when she hears music and claps her hands. She is always making us smile.


Micah Man turned 5 on the 29th. We celebrated by going to see Kung Fu Panda 2...which I loved btw...and then to eat at a Mexican rest-er-knot (as Micah says). He is our sweet guy.


A cute one of Hunny (Jordan's mom) and Eli!

This week we have been taking advantage of Mrs. Lesa's pool.


Eli has officially outgrown his spidey swim suit:) He remembered how to swim yesterday so hopefully he won't need it anymore.


Next week me, the kids, and my mom are going on Roadtrip 2011. We are going to Pennsylvania to see my brother and new niece. We are taking the "scenic route" and making a big trip out of it. The boys can't wait. I'll post pics when we get back!
Finally...this blog is ending!

We Moved!

We have made the move to Shreveport! Blog post coming soon (with pictures)!

An Update!

Just a quick update from us!!! Things are moving right along! We got a contract on our house within 5 days of putting on the market...hooray. We have found a house in Stonewall, La (which is just south of Shreveport) in Desoto Parish. It was actually the first and only house we looked at. We are set to close on everything at the end of May.

Milestones I haven't blogged about: Eli turned 6 in February. Maci has turned 6, 7, and almost 8 months. She has 2 beautiful teeth and is getting lots of hair. I call her Rapunzel. We did her first ponytail a few weeks ago:) She is on the move. She has mastered the army crawl. She absolutely refuses to sleep in her own bed. I am going to make that a goal when we move.

I had a horrific tooth extraction experience not long ago. I'll blog about that later. Around the same time I did discover that I am in fact allergic to codeine.
Easter was nice. We spent it in Covington with my mom and sister. It was a little hazy for me since I popped 2 Tylenol PM right before heading into church. I was still recovering from my "dry socket" and didn't notice the teensy, tiny PM on the bottle. It was all I could do to stay awake through church.

We JUST had our spring break last week. We spent the week in Shreveport. I had 2 job interviews (say a quick prayer:). We were in the path of some of those bad storms. We hunkered down in the stairwell. Some tornadoes hit around us but we did not get one. We did however lose power...for 3 days. Maci and I headed over to Canton to visit my mom and Jordan and the boys did a "man weekend" with friends in Texas. It was a nice little break.

We have had to miss out on sports this Spring b/c we have too much going on. Jordan is LOVING his new job.

We only have 2 1/2 weeks of school! It is going to fly. I promise to post pics eventually!

Chapters.

If my life were a book I'd have some very distinct chapters. I'd have SEVERAL chapters just since we've been married.
The "Little Boy Babies and Us Frantically Finishing School" chapter. That chapter is really a blur and there would be a lot of unfinished sentences and many exclamation points. Oh yeah and lots of laughs and even some tears. And you'd think it'd go on forever...but it wouldn't. Matter of fact it would end not too long after Katrina.
(The picture that best describes this time in our life is not blog friendly, but I will describe it. It is a family picture...with two tired parents, 2 eager toddlers, and,oh yes, me breastfeeding baby Micah. Why would I even volunteer to take a picture exposed? Most likely because that was ALL I did for 4 years. So here's this one instead.)

The next chapter would be our "Arkansas" chapter. Still a tough chapter to get through. No family close by. Jordan getting his master's degree. The baby boys are getting bigger. This chapter would be intense...kind of on the edge of your seat at some points. But it is marked with lifelong friendships an incredible church and some much needed growing together. If not for that chapter I'm afraid the rest of the book might be a little scary:)

The next chapter I would title "Home". This is the chapter that even though we loved Arkansas and had applied for mapping jobs all over the country...God brought us home. This chapter would be a little less intense. We are closer to family and grateful for that. We'd buy our first home. I'd start to teach. Life is a little easier as the boys get a little older and start school. We'd say goodbye to diapers...finally. In this chapter I will take my first nap while the boys are up and I wake up to find them all alive and well.

Then of course we have the "Baby Girl" chapter. Yep, when you live with this many boys you get your own chapter. So far it has been filled with giggles and smiley faces...diapers too, but they aren't so bad after a year or two off. That chapter started only months ago.

Now...a new chapter. We'll call it "The Shreveport Chapter". This week Jordan accepted a job offer in Shreveport, La. Shreveport is actually where I am from. I moved from there when I was 8. Jordan's dad's family is from there too. We have good friends there and family as well. This job is with an energy company and is an EXCELLENT opportunity. I am so proud of Jordan. He will start in March and me and the monkeys will move up in the spring/summer.
I imagine the beginning of this chapter will be a little trying with the distance and goodbye's. We have loved our time in Baton Rouge and we are excited for what God has in store! I know that He will work out the details. If you get a chance pray for a job for me...I can't imagine loving a school more than the one I'm at now...but God knows that. Also, pray for our house to sell pretty quick, the boys transition, and the fact that my mom will not be in Shreveport (we are working on that).
When I look at all of our chapters, one leading to the other, I realize how true Jer. 29:11 really is...

Celebration Month!

As always, February is a CRAZY time for us. This Feb. has been no exception. Jordan's mom's birthday, Valentines and my birthday are back to back and then throw in Science Fair week, dress up days, parties, Eli's big day, Mardi Gras parades and the like and you just get chaos. Fun chaos.
To celebrate the big 31 this year me, mom, Maci, and my aunt who just moved down:) went on a girls shopping spree. We started early Sat. morning...wait let me rewind. Friday Eli was complaining of ear pain. I took him to my home away from home, the ENT, and discovered he had a fungal infection from the hearing aids. Yucky. So early Sat. morning he woke up crying and in lots of pain. So I headed to walmart and loaded up on meds for Eli...then the shopping began. Natchez, MS first for the Kelly's Kids sale. It was craziness. But between the 3 of us we snagged some great things for all the girls.
Going through our pile!

Guarding our pile!

From there we drove down to St. Francisville for a yummy lunch and more shopping. I took Maci for a walk while mom and Karen antiqued. It was such a pretty day.

I LOVED this weather vane!



From there we shopped around Baton Rouge for a bit and then called it a day. That night we all headed to Covington. A few weeks ago Jordan and I had seen a restaurant on DDD (food network) called Louie and the Redhead Lady. It was in Mandeville (just mins from Cov). In Covington they have Louie and the Redhead Lady too! That is where I wanted to go eat brunch on Sunday with the whole fam. It was yummo. The fried green tomatoes were the best I've ever had.
Just look at Eli...he acts a lot like Jordan. This actually looks like a St. Patty's day pic and Joel is looking very Irish.

Me and my man.

On Tuesday...my actual birthday I got to wear jeans to work:) then headed to the ENT with Eli after school to discover that his tubes had come out. He wanted to do set #5 ASAP b/c of Eli's hearing loss....
(to be continued)

Maci's Favorite New Toys

Well,
She is grabbing, pulling, and sucking on anything she can get her hands on these days. I had to fish her hand out of my milk glass the other day and save Micah when she had fists full of his hair. Her newest and most favorite toys are these.

Her piggies...

And him...

As is the case with all of our children...the feeling is not mutual. Olive does give her cat calls.(He knows a pretty girl when he sees one) Did I ever mention that we discovered Olive was in fact a boy? It was a little strange at first especially for Jordan since their was no doubt that Olive viewed him as his 'significant other'.
Anyway...Maci would LOVE to get her hands on him!