Dixie Clifford has a lot of reasons to be happy right now — 10 to be exact.

Being named Mother of the Year by the Utah chapter of American Mothers Inc., the centuries-old nonprofit group that established Mother's Day in the United States, did not make the list.

"The title's nice," Clifford said, eyes glimmering with emotion as she lovingly stroked the glass covering an 11-by-14 photo collage she keeps in the living room. "But these are the reasons I smile."

The 72-year-old beamed as she pointed out each of her three children and seven grandchildren in the photos. The little blonde with the impish grin is Bethany Hope, she said. She was named "Hope" because she was the product of in vitro fertilization. The dark-haired boy with the wide, round eyes is Lincoln, after his father and grandfather. He recently got involved in sports.

"He has just blossomed," the grandmother gushed.

Clifford adds, smile wide, that both of her daughters have at one time held the title, also bestowed by American Mothers Inc., of Young Mother of the Year in their respective states.

Good mothering must run in the family.

Clifford certainly attributes many of the qualities that earned her the title Mother of the Year to her own parents.

"When you grow up in a peaceful place, you just want to grow and become all you can," she said.

Like Clifford, who boasts a six-page community service resume including two missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her mother was a homemaker and community activist.

"I grew up in a home where the community was at the door," Clifford said.

"For the good of the kids, we learned, you had to take a responsible part in making the world a better place."

Clifford's mother treated her with kindness and consideration, even when she was just a small child. Clifford tried to follow her mother's example as she raised her own offspring, she said. Now that they are grown, her daughters use the same core parenting techniques.

"Lots of time, effort and love, that's what I recommend for raising children," said Cristi Bulloch, 48, Clifford's oldest daughter, who lives in Las Vegas with her husband and two children. "That's how my mother did it, and that's how I'm trying to do it."

Bulloch has devoted a good amount of her spare time as a stay-at-home mom to promoting family values in Nevada by helping to organize the state's National Family Week celebrations.

"The key to successful parenting is really making the family a priority," she said. "I learned that from my mother."