Married to her college sweetheart, Michael, for over 30 years. When their romance started, they had no idea that their love would turn into a large family life. Mike and Julie started their marriage in Texas, moved to Oklahoma, where they had their first six children, then headed back to Texas, where their last two children were born. They’ve called Austin, Texas, home for the last 17 years.
Their oldest daughter, Madison, lives in Chicago, has a career in IT, and is married to Alton. Daughter McKenna is married to Yutaka. They live in South Texas and are in higher education. Son Justus and daughter-in-law Lily live in Austin, Texas, Justus with a career in tech and Lily with a career in marketing. Daughter Maesyn is married to U.S. Marine Brandon and lives in Southern California. Jairus sometimes lives in Austin and sometimes in other amazing locales. He continues his dance career and has a degree in business management. Daughter Journey is in college, considering a career in linguistics, and twins Merci and Jakin are in high school. The twins are still figuring out what they might want to do when officially #adulting, but Merci is interested in coding, and Jakin is looking at a career in chemistry. In 2023, Michael and Julie welcomed their first grandchild.
Julie began blogging about their family life right after the twins were born and found a community of writers exploring the blogging medium. Julie’s readers got to see all the mess and hilarity and laughter of raising a large modern family in a two-parent, two-career world. The family has been featured in commercial work, in video and podcast series, and a documentary. Julie’s first book, the best-selling Raising an Original, also included the family.
