New pictures up:

From November

From Thanksgiving

Great Josh quotes from the weekend:

"mmm, this is good, what is it?

It's sparkling cider (Chris)

yum, it tastes like beer."


"God is in my tummy, helping it feel better."


(this was while we were painting, and he was painting Jesus)

"I forgot his bum, I need to paint his bum"


Jack was fussing a lot, and jokingly I said I was going to throw him out the window, this was Josh's response:

"NO! don't do that, because then I won't have a brother and Jack will be lost."


I don't know where the kid comes up with this stuff.

A couple cute Josh stories, and new pictures.

Story 1:
We had been running errands and Josh had being rather difficult. I put him in the car, and told him he was going to be in big trouble when we got home. He got in his seat and was rather quiet for a little bit as we headed home. After a minute he piped up and said "mommy, I prayed to God and Jesus and asked them to help me not get in trouble." We had to have a bit of theological discussion after that one.

Story 2:
We were hanging out in the family room, and Josh started talking about his friends. He jabbered on for a little bit about them, and then I asked him who his best friend was. Without hesitation he replied "Jack".

Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67101&l=dbe19&id=503538528
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67351&l=058f5&id=503538528

New pictures up here

We have been so blessed to find an amazing new church that we love! It has so many things about it that we really enjoy, amazing music and worship, very friendly people, awesome teaching from the word that is applicable to the modern day culture, and so much more.
One of the things we have been surprised by is the amount of incredibly creative people they have serving. Every couple of week they produce a video to correspond with the point of the message. Not only are they brilliant, but they are hilarious. See for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPv9sUiD54o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42GDhHR_X3w

I would just like to say that Connecticut's high is going to be Georgia's low. Oh the difference a few months can make!

We still love it here, we have joined a small group at church and are really enjoying that. I found out about a women's bible study through it, that I am going to be joining up with. I am down right giddy with excitement!

Seriously, to think that 2-3 months ago the socialization that we have had in the last week was more than we had nearly the entire 2 years in CT. I am definitely feeling overwhelmed by the blessings God has bestowed upon us all at once.

Crazy to think how different things would have been if we would have pushed ahead with the STL move we wanted a while back. I really feel like our obedience in staying is being rewarded.

In other news, I put up new pics. Enjoy!

Josh's moment of the day:

He knocked a bunch of pictures that I had been organizing off the desk, he stood back and looked at them, put his hands on his hip and said "that is not a good deal". I started to give him a look, and get on to him (since I had been telling him not to play around them) and he looked at me before I had a chance and said "pick those up" talking to himself, and proceeded to pick them all up.

Apparently college football is kind of a big deal down here is the South. Actually that's an understatement. It's pretty much a way of life. People won't talk to neighbors who root for an opposing team, and it seems like every car, mailbox, or front stoop has some sort of sign clearly establishing who they pull for.

Now I consider myself someone who knows quite a bit about sports, and can hang with the boys in conversations dealing with such, but when it comes to this I am a fish out of water. I am going to have to do some educating.

Especially since my husband has decided it's interesting enough to make a 3+ hour drive and stay overnight to have the opportunity to see a University of Georgia game. Apparently you have to go all the way to South Carolina (not all the way, we're only about an hour or so from the border..) to see a game, since they are sold out here for every game, or go for about $150. All I can think about is the seats that we could have at Busch Stadium for that. Hopefully he has fun with the guys, and hopefully Georgia wins (seriously, Bulldogs vs. the Gamecocks???).

Since Georgia is the number 2 ranked team in the nation, the game will be broadcast on CBS, so I think I will watch some of it to brush up on my Georgia knowledge, since I think I am going to have to be jumping on that bandwagon. Until they play Mizzou!

Go 'Dawgs!

New pictures are here!

A terrible thing happened this weekend. To make a long story short, I was fiddling with the controls on the camera and trying to adjust the aperture, and accidentally erased two weeks worth of pictures off of my camera.

Now I know to most of you this may seem like a silly thing to be so upset about, but none the less, I was upset enough to get myself to the verge of tears.

Two weeks at this stage of life for Jack is a lot to miss out on. There are also not a whole lot of pictures that get taken with my boys and I and I had two really good ones on there. Plus Jack had his first round of shots, and I had picture of the little band aids on his legs. They were tweety bird ones. I also had some really cute ones of him grinning, and of Josh holding him.

Plus we went to this festival, Celebrate Freedom, where 18 different singers and bands performed. They had the Chick Fil A cows there, and I had a bunch of pictures of Josh with them, and one of the DJ's let him get on her golf cart with the cows, and we had a picture of that.

It really is very tragic. But, all that to say, if you are feeling a need for pictures, I am sorry, but you will just have to wait until I build up enough to upload again. I also wouldn't recommend asking me about it. It's kind of a sore subject...

Today is Jack's 2 month birthday. Madness.

Crazy to think that we have pretty much officially pulled it all off, having a baby, moving, getting unpacked, getting everything done for the wedding and being there, and the most difficult time period of having a new baby.

I feel most accomplished in that I can get the grocery shopping done with both of them in under an hour!

I was finally able to get the video that I made for Kristin's rehearsal dinner uploaded. So here it is, I think it is my best yet.

I also was able to figure out how to upload the one that I did for Arnold's 50th birthday party (like a year ago). I would have had it up sooner but dumb YouTube doesn't allow videos over 10 minutes. Thankfully facebook Video does, so here is that video too.

Here are some pictures from the trip and wedding:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53918&l=e395d&id=503538528

Here are some more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50865&l=69a42&id=503538528

We leave for STL tomorrow.

Our house was struck with a plague this past week, so hopefully we will all be healthy by then!

More updates and pictures after that.

Hooray, we officially have all of our boxes unpacked! Now this does by no means mean that everything has it's place and is organized, but at least we have no more boxes. Other than the blocking of our entire front entry way by the mound of them waiting to be picked up by the moving company, but they are empty so they don't count!

In other news, our computer is finally working somewhere other than the floor, thanks to Chris's technical genius, so I have finally been able to upload some pictures. Here is the link:


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48513&l=7eb81&id=503538528

Sorry for the delay in an update! We have been VERY busy and have a had a lot of things come up that we needed to take care of. Plus we just now have internet, that has been a headache in of itself.

Everything has gone well, we are here are fairly settled. Only a dozen or so more boxes left to unpack, but lots of organizing to do. We love our new house! It's great. It has an amazing view, is peaceful, and has an amazing back yard. Not to mention to squeaky floors, no leaky basements, doorknobs that work and have handles on them, a 2 car garage, our own bathroom with double sinks, a garbage disposal, and so much more!

We also love Atlanta. We are 10 minutes from EVERYTHING! Just about any restaurant or store you can imagine. The people are so friendly and nice, and we totally ran into Matt Redman in Target. I don't think life can get any better. So far the only down side is that we may be gaining weight here. We've had Chick-Fil-A like 5 time since last Saturday, and are still not sick of it yet. We've had Longhorn, and Krispy Kreme, and there are lots more to try, although now that I have my kitchen in functioning order those will be special treats.

So everything is going well, and I will try to post some more pictures soon. There also may be a special post coming about the AMAZINGNESS of our Whole Foods.

The house is packed and is en route to Atlanta. So are we! We're in NJ until Saturday morning when we head out for our two day trip to our new home.

We're all pretty excited to get there. Josh said good bye to his old room and is looking forward to his new one. Jack is doing great. His keeping a schedule is helping to make the transition a lot smoother!

I cannot post any pictures until we get our computer unpack, which probably will be at the earliest the end of next week, but after that I will post more.

Will keep you all updated, happy 4th of July to all!

More pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45187&l=9eb38&id=503538528

Everyone is doing well.

Movers come tomorrow. Crazy!

So, we've been getting a lot of questions about how everything went, and I am going to use this forum to give the details. If you are not comfortable reading some birth related terms, stop reading now.

Saturday I could tell things were feeling a little different, and told Chris we should probably see if his parents could come up a day early. They arrived and we headed to dinner. I started having contractions at regular intervals on the way to dinner, but thought I would see how things went. They kept up, about 7-8 minutes apart. On the way home they jumped to about 4 minutes apart, and started getting pretty dang intense. So when we got home we packed up and headed out. We checked in about 8 pm. They checked me shortly after arriving and I was about 4 cm. I originally has intended on trying to go natural, but admittedly the pain I was feeling at 4 cm was about what I had with Josh at 9cm. Between the intense pain, and my doctors recommendation to have it in, in case the c-section became necessary, I caved.

By the time they finally got the epidural in and checked me I was at 9 cm. The nurse told me she hadn't seen contractions this close and intense in any one other than someone who was induced and on pitocin. Very comforting while I was about to pass out from the pain. I felt relief from the contractions for about 10 minutes before I started feeling a lot of pressure from the need to push. Each contraction they have you push 3 times. I did that about 6 or 7 times and he was out. He came very quickly, and because of that I experienced some major tearing. It was amazing though, such a different experience than the c-section. He came out nice and reddish purple too, unlike Josh who was blue. After a couple dozen stitches they moved us to recovery.

He was born at 12:29am was 8 pounds even and 20 1/2 inches. Since he was born in the middle of the night we didn't disturb anyone, or have anyone come until the morning. It was a nice bonding time. Josh came up in the morning to see his baby brother, and was great. He cannot stop giving him kisses and hugs and wants to be by him all the time.

We are all recovering well. Jack is a great sleeper, and nights haven't been too rough so far. I'm sore, but nothing compared to recovering from the c-section. We are feeling incredibly blessed! Now we are wrapping up loose ends and preparing for the move. The moving truck comes on Wednesday, and we leave Connecticut on Thursday. If you want to see pictures, there is a link in the post below. I may try to upload some more pictures in the next couple of days, so check back. Thank you for all of your congratulations, support and prayer! We have felt it and are very thankful.

Pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45187&l=9eb38&id=503538528

We have a baby! Jacob Matthew Kelly was born June 22 at 12:29 a.m. He was 8 lbs even and 20 1/2 inches. Jack and I are both doing well. I was able to do a VBAC so that was a huge blessing! Josh absolutely adores his baby brother and does not want to leave his side. I'm amazed at how well he seems to be doing with the transition so far. We are all doing well, and go home tomorrow. We'll try to put more updates and pictures up soon!

The update is, there is no update. No baby, and no home sale. No progress.

On a funny note, here is a quote from Josh from the other night, which had us laughing pretty hard:

Chris: Josh, you're amazing.

Josh: Yeah, I am.

I went to the doctor this morning, and as of then, I am 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. Between hearing that, and the amount of contractions I have been having, I would be surprised if I make it 2 more weeks.

We did a huge Target trip this weekend and got everything so we are completely ready for whenever he decides to show up. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned, more recovery time before the move!

Well that is the update for all who are interested, I'll try to keep you all posted.

As previously mentioned, I am starting to incorporate some of my food passion into this blog. I was reading the Beth Moore blog and there was a post about fresh fruit tarts. Well it got me wanting a tart, so I had to make one. The only problem is, I have difficulty eating a dessert that does not involve chocolate some how, and I didn't want to buy 5 different kinds of fruit just to make one tart, so I took her recipe and created something to suit my needs.

Here is her recipe, it's the second one on the page, although you might be interested in the first too if fruit tarts sound good to you. I used her crust recipe, and the vanilla bean custard filling (which is amazing).

To make it my own, I took the tart shell and spread a thin layer of dark chocolate on the bottom, I then put the vanilla bean custard down, and then spread another thin layer of chocolate on top (I like chocolate and richness, but I found the two layers of chocolate distracted from the taste of the custard, next time I will cut it down to one layer on top, because it's prettier that way). I then placed some amazing organic raspberries they had on special from Whole Foods on top. I'm a fan of the raspberries, but strawberries, or oranges would be just as good. To help keep the raspberries fresh (because they go bad quickly) I took some raspberry preserves mixed with a little water and brushed a light layer on top. It helps to make it shiny too. I would also recommend refrigerating this, if it lasts long enough to need refrigeration.

Here are the results:

This last one sort of shows the layers. Normally they won't run into one another when cut, but since Josh and Chris were about to jump out of their seats in anticipation (and if I waited another half an hour my three year old would have been up until midnight) I didn't let the top layer of chocolate set before putting the raspberries on and cutting. You should do that. Unless you don't care about your layers and just want to eat it. Whatever works.

I have had a few people ask about this, so that is why I am posting this. Please do not in any take this as us asking for gifts! This is just to get the information out there to the people that are interested!

We do have a baby registry, and here is the link.

Or you could search Babies R' Us for Chris and Katie Kelly, and the location will be Connecticut still.

Just as an update though, if you plan on sending gifts, our last day in Connecticut will be July 2. After that, we will no longer be receiving mail here. If you want our new address, we have it, so feel free to ask. I'd post it on here, but I'm not sure I want everyone having access to my new address : )

Again, this is just for the people who have inquired, or are interested, please do not take this the wrong way!

C-Section date: June 23
Moving Truck arrives: July 2

It's a little stressful, but mostly good, and completely crazy. I cannot wait to be home!

So it's officially ours!

Chris had the opportunity to get the inspection done his last morning there, and that went incredibly smoothly. Our closing date is going to be on June 25. Crazy, and no we are not planning on being there for it : )

Here is a link to see pictures of it:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40585&l=ed455&id=503538528

So we have a house, yeah! More updates and pictures coming soon!

So, I must admit that I have been a little distracted and have virtually forgotten about the fact that we are having a baby in about a little over a month. So for those who check this for our family updates, and have been wondering why I have failed to update on the pregnancy, I apologize. I literally forgot!

As of right now I am scheduled for a c-section June 23. Since I have a history of CPD (the baby's head being too large for my pelvis) they don't want me to go any further than that. To be honest, we really cannot afford to have the baby any later than that date anyways, so it kind of works out. If I go into labor before the scheduled c-section then they will let me try to have a VBAC. We're hoping that is the case, both for a sooner delivery date, and for ease in recovery. However if I stop progressing, or show any signs of fetal distress than on with a c-section it will be. Although I think having one of those needles put in your back is much easier when you are having contractions to distract you. All that to say, by June 23 we will have a new baby boy.

Hopefully that is a sufficient update for all on the pregnancy status!

Our house is on the market, and we are being run out of it several times a day. Just in case any of you are interested in seeing some of the updates and changes we have made since last year, here is a link with all updates that we have done:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0JZM27lmxZOIg

So we are listing our house on the market this week! Yeah! Hopefully things will slow down a little after that. Chris leaves for ATL in a week and a half to get us a house. Madness.

In other news, my grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary this weekend. It was kind of hard to not be there and celebrate with, and see all the family. My sister did a great job of giving me a sufficient play by play of the weekend action though.

Chris and I are incredibly blessed to have all 4 of our grandparents still with us, and even more fortunate to have such a legacy left by having all 4 of the couple having made it to the 50 year mark.

I think so many people have the naivete to think that it's just a generational thing to stay together that long. I don't care who you are, marriage takes work, and if it is (which in none of these is this the case) nothing more than determination and perseverance, having that for 50 years should be applauded!

All of that to say, I made a video for my grandparents for their anniversary party, and thought I would post the link here in case anyone wanted to view it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y1nSCZPvxqE

All right, an update on what the new start date means for us. It means that we have been crazy! Everything has been moved up at least a couple of weeks, if not a month. We will be leaving Connecticut, one way or another, worst case mid July.

Chris goes down to Atlanta to find us a house (and no I'm not crazy, just incredibly confident in my husband, and I don't want to travel), so once he makes that trip, and we get our house here sold, we will have more of an exact date in mind.

Best case scenario it looks as though we will be moving with a month old baby.

So that is the general move update. As far as other updates go, I am going to be reformatting this blog a little bit. I will still do updates, but I want to expand it to include more of my food findings also. So don't be surprised if you start seeing more postings, most of them being food related!

Just a quick update, Chris's start date has been moved from August 1 to July 1, so instead of moving at the end of July, we will be moving at the beginning.

More details to come soon!

So we will be moving at the end of July or right around the first of August, depending on when our closing date is. We (and by we, it may mean just Chris) hope to go down to Atlanta to look for houses at the end of May. We've already looked a lot online and are really excited about what we see.

We finally had our full ultrasound done today and found out that we still have a boy, who is healthy and weighs two and a half pounds. Here are some pictures of him:

This is his profile, with his foot up by his face. When you could see the movement on the ultrasound screen it looked like he was sucking on his toes.

His foot.

I've also uploaded some of our pictures from Easter, so if you would like to see some of those, you can go here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34452&l=05993&id=503538528

I've also uploaded a few more videos, if you want to check those out. Here is that link:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=KtSue510

In other news we are super excited for our vacation to St. Louis. We leave next week, and are very much looking forward to a break, and to be able to spend some good quality time with friends without being so rushed!

We're going to be a little crazy over the next couple of months, with our trip, getting the house ready to go on the market, all 3 of our birthdays (plus like half of our families!), buying a new house and having a baby, but I will try to keep everyone posted as regularly as I can!

We're moving to Atlanta! At the latest right at the beginning of August, but we're hoping for mid to late July, we'll have to see how this baby and the home buyers want to co-operate.

I'm pretty much falling in love with the city, there is so much to see and do, along with a lot of culture and history. The area we're looking at buying is beautiful, and compared to where we are at here, I imagine it will feel like we are living in a mansion!

We're excited!

So in work related news, as of right now it sounds as though we will be being transfered to the Atlanta or Dallas area. We're hoping to know for sure within the next week or so. We're still not sure about timing, that will probably take a couple of more weeks to figure out, but we'll keep you all posted!

In other news, I put some new pictures up of Josh, and of us, here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31672&l=44465&id=503538528

You can also still view some pretty recent pictures at the link a couple of posts down.

Well we have finally heard some news. We now know that we will for sure be living in one of five cities in six months or less.

GMAC is doing some restructuring, and is cutting 16 nationwide branches down to 4. The four branches are Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas. I say five cities, because we are still considering St. Louis our fall back option.

Within the next couple of weeks we will have some decisions to make based off the offers the company has made to us. So hopefully by mid March we will know where we are going and about when we can expect to be there.

So more information will be coming soon, but that's the news for right now.

An update:

As many of you have been inquiring, we still do not know anything about moving. We are expecting to hear something at the beginning of March, or Chris will start inquiring there after. There have been some rumors floating around GMAC of some changes, and between catching wind of some of those, and being prepared for the possibility they won't move us to a place we want to go, we're still keeping our STL options and possibilities open.

So we're trusting God that He's got a plan and just waiting for Him to show us what it is.

In baby news, we go in at the beginning of February to find out what it is (we're hoping for a girl, but any child is a blessing!). I've also been feeling the baby kick for a while, and there have been a couple of times it's been strong enough for Chris to feel. Josh thinks he feels something no matter what, so he doesn't count just yet, although I can't wait until it gets strong enough he really can feel it. After much explaining on my part he's starting to understand that he does not, and cannot have a baby in his belly. However, he does think he has a dinosaur in there. I don't even know how to begin to deal with that.

So that is pretty much what is going on with us right now, lots of waiting. Waiting to find out where we will be living, what Chris will be doing, what our baby is, and waiting for the horrible month of January to be over!

We'll keep you posted on any news about any of it!