So yeah, I obviously didn’t get zoo pictures up.  We realized late last Monday night that we had forgotten our camera for the zoo trip so all the pictures were taken with Mark’s phone.  Which means now they are on Google + and I have no clue how to get them over here.  That’s a job for Mark.

But here’s a few reasons we’ve been sporadic…
1.  Pregnancy…first trimester is always a good excuse not to update the blog.  Especially with the exhaustion and the nausea and the eating…I’m eating a lot this time…weird.
2.  Strep:  We started with strep in June and then it continued through July starting back up with Liam and scarlet fever (that we found at the zoo).  Ace got it on July 3 for his second round.  And then Ceili Rain and Bryant got it a week later.  At the point our pediatrician had had it and did cultures on all of us, including me…yeah, that culture thing isn’t so much fun.  At that point, Zoe and Josiah came back positive (meaning they had it but had not started with symptoms yet).  Ace had just finished his meds so he and Liam tested negative.  That brought our strep med count up to four.  Mark got swabbed the next day and came back negative.  Four days after all that, Ace started running a low grade fever and I looked at his throat and immediately called the doctor.  My pediatrician wasn’t so thrilled to see us again that week, and I think was a bit doubtful about it being strep.  Until she saw his throat.  And his culture came back positive after 2 1/2 minutes.  I know my strep thankyouverymuch.  So, my normal antibiotic avoidant doctor prescribed antibiotics for Ace and as a precaution to Liam.  That’s right.  We’ve had six children on antibiotics.  They are all finished up and all finished up today so we’ll see if we kicked the strep habit for good.  If not, one or two more times and Ace is going to be removed of those pesky tonsils.
3.  Some other changes that I can’t mention on here until I talk to family and we actually know more.  So, suffice to say it’s big.  And exciting.  And terrifying all at once.  And it’s totally a God thing!  Prayers are supre appreciated and as soon as we know more and have told all, we will share even more here (and I can’t wait)!

And so, stay tuned this week for more of what we’ve done in July.