NATCHEZ — Katie and Kirk Graham made a habit of moving regularly during the initial years of their marriage.

When The Dart landed on Northampton Road Thursday evening, however, the Grahams were settled in at their residence of more than a year with no plan to pick back up the nomad’s life.

Both Katie and Kirk are teachers — Katie at Concordia Parish Academy of Math and Science and Kirk at Cathedral School — and both are originally from Natchez.

“Kirk was in the military, so we moved around a lot for a while,” Katie explained.

Together, the couple has lived in Colorado, San Antonio and Leesville, La. Prior to them being married Kirk also spent time in Germany, Kansas, North Carolina, Bosnia and Hawaii as a member of the U.S. Army.

“It was great before I was married,” Kirk said. “I enjoyed it because I wasn’t really tied down, but getting a family changes all that.”

The Grahams have two sons, Logan, 7, and Dylan, 2, and much of Logan’s earlier years were spent moving between Colorado, San Antonio and Leesville. Logan is currently a Cathedral student, and this year is his first year to be at the same school for consecutive school years.

“It was interesting, because I could see more things I never saw, like mountains or volcanoes,” Logan said. “I like traveling. I like to move — it’s kind of a tradition.”

If there was one thing he didn’t enjoy, Logan said, it was not having his dad around as much. Kirk was deployed to Iraq twice when Logan was younger, once for more than 12 months.

“I could talk to him on the computer, but it was really hard,” Logan said.

Their house on Northampton is the second house the Grahams have owned. Prior to Natchez, the couple was living in Leesville and decided to make their way back to their hometown.

“Being that close to home and visiting Natchez regularly, it really just made us want to move back here,” Kirk said. “It’s a great town.”

Katie said she, too, is glad she and her husband decided to bring their two children back to Natchez.

“It’s good to be home,” Katie said. “Both of our families live here, and we get help with the kids. That’s one of the main reasons for moving back.”

It also helps having a church family, and Katie said First Baptist Church of Natchez has played a big part in her and Kirk’s lives — when they were growing up, and now that they’re married.

“We both grew up at First Baptist, and having that church family is good,” Katie said. “We get lots of support.”

With the family settled on living in Natchez, Logan and Dylan will get to experience a lot of the same things growing up that Kirk and Katie experienced, Katie said.

“I still have a lot of friends here who have children that are Logan’s age,” Katie said. “It’s good that they can grow up together. We can show them where we grew up and how we did things.”