Meet The Family!!!

You probably want to get to know us, right? Alright then!

Jim & Kris met during the summer of 1987, right as Jim was finishing his degree in Architecture. Kris already had a working internship for a local contracting company. Jim landed a summer job in a business that worked closely with Kris's company. We met at a company picnic and were inseparable ever since! We married in 1988 and quickly decided we wanted to start a family. On April 14, 1989 Kris gave birth to sextuplets! Wow were we in shock! The doctors originally told us we were having triplets, so to find out there were 3 more was unbelievable. We weren't sure we were up to the challenge. But when we looked at those tiny faces, we knew it was meant to be. We were going to be the best parents of sextuplets and no one could tell us otherwise. Though things got a little crazy along the way, we stuck together as a family. And we certainly learned a lot!

One of the hardest things to learn was how to raise our children to have different identities. We didn't want to force them to wear matching outfits (except for family pictures!) and we certainly didn't want to treat them all the same. They are each unique individuals with unique personalities, so our main goal was to discover their individual interests and help them be true to themselves.


Meet our fabulous kids!

Our first born is Jonathan (Jon) Robert and he is the "professor" of the family. He's so observant and even as a baby, was always "inventing" things and discovering new ways to play with toys. Although all our children are exceptionally bright, Jon has always pushed himself academically. He is currently studying to become a scientist and hopes to someday work for NASA.

Jacob Taylor is our second born and he is the wild one. By that we mean he's not afraid to entertain a crowd! Jacob has so much charisma and was born with a talent for music. He started his own rock band when he was 13 and is currently traveling along the west coast promoting his demo album. Look out, world, the next American Idol is on his way!

Katharine (Kate) Marie, our third born, is our little mischief maker. As a child, she was very sneaky and liked to hide things. At the same time, she was very cuddly and warm and always knew how to put a smile on your face. To this day, Kate has shown this warmth to everyone around her and was even voted "Most Caring" in high school. But she still knows how to use her sneaky abilities and plans to work as an undercover cop.

Fourth born is Justin Scott and he is what you might call the "hippie" in our house. Free-spirited and care-free, Justin grew up with a love for all living things and built his own tree house as a kid so he could "live with the earth". He was always the one to bring home a hurt animal and would nourish it back to health. Justin recently left college to work for the Peace Corps and started his own campaign against animal & human cruelty.

Our fifth born is Karmen Ashley. She was the tiniest of the bunch at birth and is still the smallest today. But don't let her small size fool you. She is the feistiest person we know and is determined to get what she wants! As a child, she was always the one controlling what games were played and whatnot. Because she was small, she used her voice to give her power over her brothers and sisters. And today, she is still using her big voice training to be a drill sergeant.

Last but certainly not least, Kelly Grace is our sixth born. From birth, Kelly always showed a great desire to help her brothers and sisters. She caught on to things more quickly than the others and therefore helped them if they were struggling. She always wanted to play "mommy". Today, Kelly is working on getting a degree in elementary education, hoping to work with underprivileged kids.


Well that's just a little bit about us! Stay tuned for tips about how we helped our kids develop their own identities and the research we found that helped us!

Love,
Jim & Kris