A Royal Heritage

When I was a baby, my parents were at a harvest festival where they happened upon a pretty baby contest. I was my parent's first girl after three boys, so naturally, I was the prettiest little thing they had ever seen. A couple of judges must have thought so too. My dad loves to tell this story and I love to see him light up as he tells it.

But wait. There's more. 25 years later, Ryan and I were living just 15 miles away from the town where I was crowned a pretty baby. As I was looking online and checking out the different events happening for the holiday, there was a local radio station hosting a firework show and a pretty baby contest. Rylee was just a few days over five months old at the time. I promise I'm not a pageant kind of parent (promise!), but as soon as I saw the sign up for it, I knew we had to go.

There were LOTS of pretty babies there. As I watched all the parents line up on stage to strut their child's stuff, I was starting to feel just awful that I was even participating in such an event. My child was beautiful no matter what happened, right?

Well, 1st place happened and the scepter has been passed. 

(Click HERE if you want to see the pictures from our blog archive.)

Now we have two, nearly identical, bare-bottom baby trophies that stay tucked away safely in my cedar chest............when they're not being used as an object lesson to my young women at church about their own royal heritage.  Sure wish I had one of these silly guys to give to each of those beautiful girls.