16 Kids And Wanting More

Not far from Tulsa there's a family that's getting a tremendous amount of attention. People tend to be curious when they find out that family has 16 children! Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and

Wednesday, February 22nd 2006, 6:10 pm

By: News On 6

Not far from Tulsa there's a family that's getting a tremendous amount of attention. People tend to be curious when they find out that family has 16 children! Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their large family have been featured in magazines and cable TV specials. News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports on life at the Duggars'.

In Tontitown, Arkansas the Duggar kids love their bikes, and swings, and being outdoors. They're just full of fun. Sixteen children total, all biological children. Years ago, after a miscarriage, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar decided not to use birth control.

"At that point, we read in the Bible it said children are a blessing from the Lord and we decided to give this area to him. And right after that, he blessed us with twins," Jim Bob Duggar, Father of 16 said.

And then more and more and more children came along. They range in age from 4-months to 17 years.

â€œIs it just a blast to have 16 kids?â€ News On 6 anchor Craig Day asked.

â€œIt is fun all the time. There's never a dull moment," said Duggar.

It's never dull because there is always something to be done. So how do you keep it all going smoothly? With cooking and cleaning, laundry and everything else that goes into running a household? Well, as you can imagine, with 16 kids, planning ahead is very, very, very important.

"I think people are curious to know how a large family runs," said mother of 16 Michelle Duggar.

It runs, based on teamwork.

"Really now, it's easier with 16 children than it was back when we had four or five children,â€ Jim Bob Duggar said. â€œBecause it's not just Michelle and I doing everything. It's like all of us do a little bit and we can accomplish a lot."

For the Duggar's it's also about simplifying things. A family closet makes clothes easy to sort and hang up, the boys have two choices for socks, black or white, and the Duggarâ€™s have a laundry room to make many moms envious.

â€œHaving the four washers and four dryers helps?â€ asked Day.

â€œOh does it help,â€ responded Michelle Duggar. â€œIt's cut our time in a fourth of what it used to be."

Which is a big deal when you average eight loads of laundry each day.

Every family member has a certain part of the house they are responsible for, and the older siblings help the younger ones.

"One person may be responsible for the laundry room and another is responsible for the kitchen, someone else is responsible to take out the trash, so when everybody does their part it really makes life flow much more smoothly," said Michelle Duggar.

Life flows more smoothly at the Duggar home thanks to a new 7,000 square foot house. It has a regular kitchen, but
also an industrial commercial grade kitchen.

"Now for the upstairs, which is what we call our living quarters, this is where all of our bedrooms are," Michelle Duggar said.

The bedrooms are dorm style.

"You walk in and it's just so bright and cheery and so open," said the mother of 16.

The girls in one bedroom upstairs and the boys in the other. Complete with lockers, pool table and even a play set with a tunnel to the boys room upstairs. There are also nine bathrooms.

The Duggars say they never planned to have 16 children. But they're blessed because they have.

"It actually makes you younger. I think Michelle looks younger every day," said Jim Bob Duggar.

"Our heart is, is that we feel like each one of these children are a gift from God,â€ Michelle Duggar said. â€œAnd our hearts desire is just to love them, and train them up to love the Lord and to serve their fellow man."

Jim Bob and Michelle say their children are a gift, a blessing. And even with 16 kids, they would love to have more.

So how can the Duggar's afford such a big family? They've been debt free for 16 years, which helps. But their grocery bill runs between $1,500 and $2,000 each month, so they buy in bulk, and look for bargains.

They're going on vacation for a month to the Grand Canyon and California, which will be the subject of a TV special airing this summer called "16 Kids And One Vacation!"