Summer, oh summer!

Where have you gone???  I feel like this summer has just flown by.  We had so much fun, but I can't believe it is almost done!  :)

Addie is eagerly anticipating the start of her education.  Let me rephrase that, she is excited to use her new lunch box, thermos, play on the playground, make new friends and meet her teacher!  She is NOT excited when we explained that school is 9 months of the year, and it goes on until you are 18.  She broke down in tears when she heard that part! 

James recent addiction is with climbing, jumping, twisting, and summer saulting (lots of "inappropriate" use of my couches!)  His buddy Ben got him watching American Ninja Warriors.  Needless to say, there has been a lot very close calls in our house!  We are signing him up for gymnastics this winter, and he is ecstatic.  He explains to everyone, "Addie gets to go to kindergarten and I get to go to gymnastics!"

Lukey Poo is almost 9 months old and getting stronger every day!  His big news is....  He started smiling again on Monday!  He took a 7 month hiatus in the smiling department, but it's back!  Deep down, I knew he'd smile again.  :) His quick smirk and full smile both light up the room.  Addie and James both have witnessed it and get so incredibly excited when he does it!  He is also gaining a lot of neck strength.  He has a long way to go, but it is so encouraging what we do see! 

Stefan and I are doing well and are excitedly planning our trip to New York and Boston in September.  My parents graciously offered to watch our kiddos while I accompany Stef on a work trip to New York.  We are going to stay there 2 nights and then take the train up to Boston to visit my brother and his fiancee Maari.  Can't wait!

My sweet Grandpa Gene, Boppa to the kids, was diagnosed with cancer in early July.  Prayers of comfort, peace, and strength for my grandpa and grandma during this difficult time would be greatly appreciated.  We love you Mimi & Boppa!

Stefan and I are about to sit down to the movie God's Not Dead!  Pretty excited!

Love, The MN Juliens

Summerland Pictures!

 Annual "golfing in the nude" photo of James!!!

 Great train robbery was AWESOME!!! 

 James loved the guns!

 Annual OR picture with Papa.

 Fun time with cousins.

 Sarah, Fergus, and Tess the Mess!

 Mark and Kim's Christmas card!

 The girls.

 Nana and her boys!

 All the ladies in our Italian outfits!

Family pic!

Our little sweetie pies!

Julien Family Update

Summer is in full swing here at the Julien household and we are LOVING it!  Our pool has been the best investment so far.  :)

Addie just lost her second tooth last night and the Tooth Fairy forgot to visit!  I have to remember tonight. We had a pretty long face from her this morning, but she took the excuse "lots of kids must have lost their teeth last night" pretty well.

James is just finishing up his T-ball league.  James LOVES t-ball and is learning the valuable lesson of sportsmanship!  Addie's reign as 1st base coach lasted about 10 minutes on the first night.  She then took me aside and asked if she could be relieved of this duty and said, "The babies need me more!"  She is our team babysitter and enjoys going from Elsa, to Nora, to Linc, and to Lukey. She has lots of subjects that love her attention. I just love the fact that Addie adores babies.  She is such a natural at it!

Little Lukey Poo just got weighed again yesterday and is now a whopping 10 lbs. 11 oz.  He might make it to 12 pounds before we head to Canada. :)  New news, he was just fitted for a cranial cap, and gets his helmet next week!  I think I also forgot to mention that he saw his ophthalmologist last week and is now wearing an eye patch 1-2 hours a day, for the next 3 months, to try and help correct his ptosis (droopy eyelid).  So, Little Luke will be sporting quite the gear!  Hearing aids, helmet and eye patch!  Aye, Aye Matey!  :)

Luke is now eating solids 2 times a day and LOVING it.  He is doing such a great job.  He's only had the not so yummy stuff (peas, green beans, and squash).  We'll start the fruits next week.  He still is bottle feeding about 5 times a day.  I'm still managing to pump 2 times a day as well, but am only getting about 3 ounces per time.  Just enough for 1/2 a bottle in the morning and 1/2 a bottle at night.  Better than nothing!

We are excited to head up to Summerland soon!  Love you all lots!

The MN Juliens

Little Luke Update

School is almost out for the summer, which means lots of appointments for Lukey.  We've tried to schedule all of them in the next three weeks before we head up to Canada.

This week week we had a follow-up EEG and appt with his neurologist.  She wanted to see if there were any changes since he has been on his new seizure meds.  Nothing changed! Our doctor said that is okay news.  Best scenario would have been if the EEG drastically improved, but she said worse case scenario would have been if the twitching had gotten worse.  So... We will take no change.  She increased his med dose and he has another appointment in 2 weeks.

He has also had a follow-up with his eye doctor.  He said everything still looks good, just delayed.  He still has ptosis (droopy eyelid) so has to start wearing an eye patch 1-2 hours per day.  James is pretty excited for his little brother to be a pirate!  He will need to wear this for 3 months and then have another follow-up.

Today we went over to St. Paul to see his genetics doctor.  He now weighs 10 lbs. 3 oz., so he's growing!!  She said there are usually 3 possible reasons for microcephaly (small head).  First, could be due to an invetro infection, didn't find.  Second, could be a chromosome abnormality, didn't find.  So lastly, they are looking at his genes and trying to find a possible syndrome.  They successfully drew blood today (yeah Children's) and are testing for 2 things: different microcephaly studies and a breakage study.  She showed me the cost being billed to our insurance, $5000!!!  So thankful for health insurance.  We will find out results probably sometime in August.

I still find myself on the edge of doing okay and having tears.  I think the grieving process will take longer than I envisioned.  90% of the time, I'm okay. It's the other 10% that gets to me.  I experience it when I am stressed or visiting the doctor.  Or when I explain our experience to someone new.  It is at these times that emotions come flooding back and the tears start.  I have come to terms that this OKAY and that I don't have to feel guilty about being emotional.  It shows that I am only human, and this is normal.  It also allows me to draw my strength from Him and realize that I cannot do it on my own.  I am also constantly reminded at how incredibly blessed I am.  My children, all three of them are perfect and such gifts from Him.  In this world, we are surrounded by many people that are not able to have children.  It puts everything into perspective and I realize that this roller coaster it have been on, will allow me to have more humility, more compassion, and more understanding to people and their circumstances.

Thank you again for all your prayers!! As of today, I am officially on summer break!! Yeah for mommy days!

Love, the MN Juliens

Camping - Memorial Weekend

We had such a great time camping Memorial weekend at Sibley State Park.  It was a gorgeous weekend spent with a perfect group of campers.  Love hanging out with family, friends, and the dogs!  :)  Also, what a great day to remember a dear loved one, Aaron!

The kids missed "tenting" so much, they decided to spend the following 3 days sleeping on the floor.

Then Grandma got the idea to get out their tent.  She set it up in their room as a surprise, and the rest is history.  They are going on 7 days of sleeping on the floor for both naps and night time.  James usually lasts about an hour, and then I find him in his own bed.  Addie toughs out the hard floor ALL night!  :)  We'll see when the novelty wears off!

T-ball

James had his first t-ball game last night!  He was so excited he could hardly contain himself.  The entire car ride to the field, he kept asking, "Is everyone excited to watch me? Are you just so excited to see my game?" 

6 month check-up

Lukey Poo had his 6 month check-up today!  :) Like the rest of his check-ups, I completely expected him to be sleeping.... but he surprised us all and was wide awake the entire time.  It was the first time I heard our doctor say, "He looks happy and healthy, AND what beautiful blue eyes (she'd never seen them open!!!)."  I know I don't need the reassurance, but it felt so incredibly good to hear her say that. 

Praises:
-His weight is up to a whopping 10 pounds now!
-He no longer needs to fortify his breast milk bottles anymore
-His head and length are both up
-His spine X-ray came back normal (for the most part)
-He gets to start trying solid foods tonight!
-He started sitting up in the Bumbo seat (with lots of support!)

Again, I have this overwhelming sense of peace and happiness.  I know that I don't need other people to tell me that Luke will be okay, but it sure was a blessing to hear it from our doctor.  When filling out his pre-exam form, they ask you a series of milestone questions, and nearly all of them he hasn't reached yet.  It's hard to go to a doctor's appointment knowing that your son isn't doing what a typical 6 month old is doing. 

On my walk this afternoon, I realized that's okay.  He isn't typical, but I know that he is PERFECT!  I am able to have complete faith that God created him exactly the way he is, to do amazing things in this world, AND I get to be a part of it.  Thank you God for that blessing!!

Lots of love to you all!  I'll post some pictures soon from our camping trip this past weekend! 
The MN Juliens

Mother's Day, Bath Time, Addie's Graduation & Our 10 Year Anniversary

Mother's Day at Julie's!!  So blessed to have these ladies in my life. :)

Rub a dub dub, 3 kiddos in a tub!!

Addie had her preschool graduation today from All Saints Lutheran Church!  What a lovely service they put on.  Addie has been incredibly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful school.  We will miss ASLC, but will see you in a year when James starts!

Stefan and I have been married for 10 years.  We have been so incredibly blessed, especially the gift of our 3 precious little ones.  We plan on celebrating just the two of us next weekend, but were SO happy to share the evening with our family!  After dinner, we went home and watch our wedding video!  Addie and James get such a kick out of it. :)

We went out to eat after Addie's graduation.  Five other families from Addie's class happened to be there.  The kids had a blast playing! I'm not sure the waitress did though!! :)  Good thing it was a beautiful evening!!!

God is SO good!!!!

It was 4 months ago today that we found out little Lukey was severely hard of hearing.  His hearing loss was at 90 decibels for high pitch sounds, putting him at the severe to profound hearing loss.  We were told our first option would be a cochlear implant some day.   Our second option was to pray for a miracle.  We were told that he had a lot of fluid in his ear, and with ear tube surgery, his hearing loss could increase as much as 30 decibels.  Our audiologist said this would be a miracle! 

Well... God is good!  Luke and I went in today for his 6 month ABR post-ear tube surgery and his hearing loss is now at 65 decibels, putting him in the moderate to severe range instead.  He is no longer a candidate for cochlear implants, and will be able to hear and understand speech with hearing aids!!!!!  Praise God!  I am overwhelmed and overjoyed by His miracles!

Thank you for your prayers!  Honestly, I don't think I said anything for at least 5 minutes when the audiologist told me the news.  I couldn't process it.  I had been so consumed with organizing appointments and looking at dates to schedule his cochlear implant surgery, that the news didn't seem real.  All I know is I haven't been able to stop smiling all day!  Thank you God for your miracles, and thank you for this miracle in our life.

:) Love, The MN Juliens

Preschool Mother's Day, Dentist and Jaime's Baby Shower!

Lukey Poo

Lukey Poo is growing and changing so fast!!  It has been wonderful to watch and notice an improvement in his hearing after having tubes put in last week.  He now startles to the kids yelling, dog barking, and the piano.  It is really encouraging!

We've had a busy week of making appointments and getting more appointments set-up.  This week he has a weight check with his pediatrician, another ear mold appointment (we also get to pick up his new hearing aid - did I forget to mention that Norman chewed his left aid 3 weeks back?), and his 4 hour EEG appointment on Thursday.

I need to apologize.  I reread my post from last Thursday and realized I did not sound grateful. I need to take a step back and focus once again on all the blessings and answered prayers.  We had an amazing staff work with Luke last Thursday at his ear tube surgery!  Praise God his surgery was a success, he recuperated just great, and was back to his normal self by that evening!  One praise!  He had gained weight from his last check and is now at 9 lbs. 1 oz.  Second praise!  His hearing has improved!  Third praise!  We've been blessed with a beautiful son, who is growing and becoming stronger every day.  Fourth praise!

It is easy to get wrapped up in the negative of things.  And, I was completely guilty of that last week.  In all honesty, it's been a stressful couple weeks.  Stefan started a new job on Monday and it's been wonderful and crazy busy all together.  I've had a rough last week and half, where I'm just not quite feeling myself.  I put a call in to my doctor and she ran some blood work today.  As of now, I'm wondering if my symptoms are chalked up to fatigue.  I've been running full steam ahead for 3 months now, and I feel like my body is telling me to slow down.

All of these are not an excuse though.  I look at everything going on in the world right now, and realize how truly blessed I am.  May each of us see the blessings God has given us!

We are continually amazed by your support and encouragement.  We love you all so much and pray that God will bless your week ahead.

Lots of love, The MN Juliens

Track & Field - 2014

 Just wanted to get some pictures up tonight. I"ll post more tomorrow!  Thanks Coach Lovas. The kids had a blast!