The Secret to Raising Amazing Children...

What's the secret to raising amazing children? Just sign up for 6 easy payments of $19.95 and I'll send you my book! No - just kidding. It's quite simple actually...

start with one amazing child and the rest will follow!



Kacey was a gem from the moment we got her. Well, she did spit up a lot so I guess she wasn't perfect - but she was pretty darn close. I still say that the reason we had so many kids was that Kacey made it seem so easy. She kind of duped us. Before we knew it, the kids got progressively harder and Bryan won the distinguished award for "Straw That Broke the Camel's Back!" (but this blog is not about Bryan so those stories will have to wait.) It's about our amazing Kacey who turns 27 today!

She was such a good baby. Every first baby should be like Kacey. She wasn't one of those "slept all night the first night home from the hospital" babies or anything, but she was such a good baby. She ate every four hours and slept in between just like she was supposed to. She would sit in her infant seat and just look around at people. We would carry her in from the car and just leave her in her seat and people would be amazed because their kids would never just sit there.

She would sit in her swing and swing for hours. We had the kind of swing that got its motion from pushing a weighted bear to the top of the leg and then it stopped when the bear reached the bottom. David used to say that if we could rig it so the bear would keep dropping for a couple of hours, we wouldn't have to get a sitter. She would just swing and be happy.

When we got her a Johnny Jump Up, she enjoyed jumping in it just like babies are supposed to. I never did have any other babies that liked their Johnny Jump Up as much as Kacey did. She did most everything by the book and she made us feel like we were the best parents in the world. Little did we know that we were total incompetents but we were lucky enough to get the best baby in the world!

Kristy came along and Kacey was a model big sister. She was always kind and patient with all her siblings (well except for the stalagmite/stalagtite thing but it's hard to be patient when no one else is paying attention!)



I think there's a saying that goes, "With great hair comes great wisdom" or something like that. In Kacey's case, it surely is true. She was always wise beyond her years and look at that hair!



Motherhood has brought me the greatest joy in my life and it all started with Kacey! She seemed to pave the way for the rest. She wasn't afraid to give talks in primary so when any of the other kids would get nervous about it, they would just look to Kacey's example and know that it was going to be fine (and Kacey would confirm to them that it was indeed true that when you give a talk you got to go to Frank's Market for candy the next day.)



I'm not sure I could have raised as many kids as I did without Kacey's help. She set an excellent example and she helped the others along the way.



And somehow in just 27 short years, she went from being my daughter to being my equal! I figured that day was coming but I thought I would be much older. She has organized the food assignments for our upcoming family trip and she also organized a family talent show and sent out assignments without even telling me. Seriously, does it get any better than that? How lucky am I?

She is an excellent mother - way better than I was. She even has potty training parties! She's so awesome and I really don't know what I would do without her. Her advice and opinion means more to me than just about anyone. I knew by the time she was 21 that if anything ever happened to David and me that left our children without parents (which was my biggest fear) that it would be Kacey that I would trust to raise them. I had no doubts that she would most likely do an even better job than I would!



(Sorry, Bryan didn't make the cut for this blog post!)

So the recipe for raising great kids... start with one Kacey and add 6 more slowly, one at at time (well you could try multiples but I can't vouch for that recipe!)

Happy 27th Birthday Kacey! Thanks for leading the way so brilliantly and making it look like your father and I knew what we were doing!!! We love you.