Sisters

We keep calling Kate by her sister's names, so we went back and looked at photos of her sisters when they were born and discovered why. Perhaps you can tell them apart, but we can't. Either way, we are glad all of the cuteness was not used up on our first two!

Charlotte is 3

I'm not sure whether it was a good idea to have my kids 6 months apart during the calendar year. Emma of course is in April and Charlotte is in September. Here lies the problem, from October til April we hear about Emma's upcoming birthday, ( forgetting completely that Dad is in October and Mom is in November, obviously we don't count) and from May until September we hear about Charlotte's upcoming birthday. Although, I think if I would have had them closer together I wouldn't get rest, I just would be hearing about both birthdays year-round. Anywho, its now past Charlotte's birthday, she's officially 3, old enough to get the whole present thing. We were grateful that Grandma and Papa Word were able to come visit during this time, we had a mini-Rapunzel party, no need for friends, it means more cake for us! She was soo funny to watch open her gifts. Enjoy the videos.

Beautiful Birthday Girl, Charlotte! I can't believe you're 3

Happy birthday to you! Thanks for saving the cake Papa! 

being a big girl and opening her cards first.

Cards! You gotta love her interpretations.

Singing Cards! These are the best for little kiddos! 

Thanks Grandma for the presents!

 our favorite! She is a chocoholic after all.

Gifts from Sissy

Emma was such a great friend and went and wrapped Charlotte several presents. It is so rewarding to see them as best friends.

Chowing down on her cake, courtesy of mom.

Charlotte: a year in review!

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

This is long overdue, be warned this is a long post, ( but hey it could be longer...)

If I could have one word to describe Charlotte it would be, PERSONALITY! This kid CRACKS us up! She knows she is funny. She is also soooo smart and is so sweet. I can't believe the difference from just a year ago, time really does fly when you're having fun, and fun for me, has been being a mom to this adorable girl and her sister. We love you Charlotte, thanks for choosing us!

Charlotte, when we FIRST moved to Virginia (last November) just beginning to enjoy her independence.

Charlotte loves her daddy, she runs from anywhere in the apartment when she hears his keys in the door.

Charlotte knows what we say, she did this one night as I asked her to get ready for prayers, you can't tell but the room was dark and she was the first one in there.

Charlotte is a LITTLE flexible, look at her in the background, and she's a daredevil I'm very surprised and grateful that there have not been any E.R. trips, yet, but I count on it!

Charlotte loves music and singing! she loves to dance too, but I'll first hear her singing...which MELTS my heart.

Prima Ballerina!






face # 103- "nope, nope, nope!" I'm never bored, she's got a million of 'em!

Face # 221- C'mon Charlotte, smile! Charlotte....."

Face # 305 Grumpy Charlotte, I advise walking away until this face disappears...;)

she's fearless... she absolutely loved the water this summer

she's a LITTLE obsessed with Chocolate! ( that's my girl!)

This is one of my favorites, what can I say, she KNOWS what she wants!

"Peat, Repeat" is the name of the game, of every game, every day....

You can't fully appreciate her because you aren't here everyday. But, let me tell you, everyday is a new adventure, a whole lot of fun, and I never know what to expect. These kids are wonderful, and I'm glad they're mine!

Happy Birthday Charlotte! I"m excited for this next year!

My Girls

Coming from a family of (mostly) boys I never thought I would be so comfortable raising two precious girls. I thought I would post some pics and video of some memories I know I will cherish of the rest of my life. I love you Lolo and Memers.

Love,

Daddy

This is Charlotte at Amazement Square working on an architectural drawing. She knows she has be wrapped around her finger, kept batting her eyes at me.

This is our rock band. We had fun playing on the wii.

Charlotte is one serious drummer.

Emma just had to be the lead singer and the lead guitarist. I had thought I had improved my singing, but I guess I still need some work.

Every day as soon as I walk in the door Charlotte comes running from the back of the house to give me the most welcoming hug ever! Thanks Charlotte these make my day.

The other day I came home to give Charlotte a blessing. After we knew all was well Emma kept asking if she could dance with her prince. I will cherish this video forever. I don't know if Emma or I had more fun. Either way, thanks for making me so special Emma!

The 4th of .... WHAT?!

I'll start off by saying that I love the 4th of July. I consider myself to be a patriotic person, I'm very grateful for this country I live in and the inspiration behind it. So needless to say, I was very excited to spend this holiday in our quaint upstate NY town of Saratoga Springs. Its what you think of when you think of quaint small town complete with a main street:) I was overjoyed to hear that there would be a parade among other festivities. So we got the girls ready and headed for downtown. Yes, I know TECHNICALLY I live five miles south but there REALLY isn't a whole lot here so we spend a lot of time up in Saratoga, anyways, back to the story. We parked and walk to Broadway to see the parade. It started with police cruisers clearing the way......
I WAS WAY DISAPPOINTED. This parade consisted of some old cars for the car show later that day, a fire truck or two that was throwing sticks of gum "LAME" (handfuls of candy are customary!) , one group of student athletes, and a huge group of random residents and their dogs! I felt ripped off! The coolest thing was a group that dressed up like Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers. Where was the floats, the groups of veterans, The police doing tricks on their motorcycles, the high school band? I don't think Miss Saratoga Springs even had a court... and it lasted like 20 min!

I will say that at that moment I missed the blowout parade in Provo, sigh, oh well.

There were some high lights, afterwards several of the local restaurants participated in a BBQ and dessert tasting. so we walked around and got samples. We also hit up the carousel, and played near the pond in the park. All in all it was more fun AFTER the parade and I was grateful that we made the effort to go LAST YEAR, when we were still in Provo.

Here are some cute pics anyways and we hope your 4th was good, better...

The girls trying to keep their hats as we waited for the parade. Charlotte is already a poser :)

Yes this was the parade still, like I said a random group of people and their dogs!

This is when Charlotte realized it was not "her father" who was holding her.....

Writer's Block

We have been having trouble finding something entertaining, but then we watched our videos, hope you enjoy!

A tribute to our friends the Tanners
Once upon a time in the land of the bubble lived a newlywed couple oblivious to the reality of the little ones. Weekends were spent sleeping in and watching football in between Xbox games. This naive couple even enjoyed their little neighbor "King James". King James ruled the roost on the other side of the wall. He had an endearing way of controlling his subjects. As he learned the correct command he employed it earlier and earlier. Soon it was used before the sun crept up over the Y. "Dad.." he whispered... "Daddy?" he chanted, "Daddy?" "Daddy?" "Daddy?"....... "FATHER!" Neither of his subjects would hear his demands. One simply drunk with exhaustion from working in acadamia, the other pregnant. But little did he know the kingdom was expanding. The end of an era had arrived for the newlywed couple. King James was welcoming these innocent souls to the land of parenthood through the wall of reality. It may have been adorable then, but now with 2 of their own, 5 am is just too early to be awoken in bed by the Queens of this kingdom demanding their servants jump to their beckoned call.....

"Daddy listen!"

What a simple time it was when we could visit the Tanners and THEIR children, retreating to our little oasis in the bubble. We love and miss you Tanners!

Ode to Papa Word
Once upon a time in a sunny beachside land lived a little girl. This little girl was sweet and funny and loved to dance. She would entertain her father by dancing the "moon-walk" This moonwalk wasn't as technically marvelous as when performed by some 80's dance stars, but it was clever for a four-year-old and probably would have passed for a sobriety test. This little girl grew up and passed on her love of dancing to her offspring, who have done their mother proud by truly enjoying this treasured passtime.

"Dancin' "

Vote for your favorite video
Emma Power

Circles

Daddy Listen

Dancin'

Recent Events

Okay this is going to be a long one but I promise the pics and the videos are worth it. We have to get caught up on a few of the happenings around here. First off , we finally summoned the courage and put Emma in her big girl bed. we were just too lazy and a little too sick to do this any earlier. Things have been going well and even Charlotte is close to sleeping through the night, :) Here's Emma working hard while daddy poses for the picture. Here's the resident big girl in the finished product, complete with Disney Princess bedding. It was a family affair and we had lots of fun. Emma is quite the taskmaster as we found out, if she wants something done she does her best to make sure it happens NOW. I think it was lucky Levi was so good at assembling the bed, I don't think she could have waited for anyone else to put it together. Those years of long hours and being supportive of his engineering degree paid off for me in this occasion.

The girls are getting along better by the day, which is always a good thing for a mom to see. Charlotte is one tough kid and its a good thing since we all know that even adoring toddler siblings aren't the gentlest people. This picture was from this last Saturday, the girls were cuddling with Levi watching cartoons and I was trying out a sippy cup on Charlotte, it turned into a game of "peat- repeat" with Charlotte being "peat" this time.

On another note, I finally finished Wilton cake decorating course 2, yea!! The finale cake was covered in a basket-weave and was topped with Royal Icing flowers. Royal Icing stays harder than butter cream and is used for stuff like flowers. Over the last four weeks I have learned 6-8 new flowers. However the real triumph of this class was learning and completing the basket-weave in two hours despite some very soft butter cream, Ugh! I wanted to go buy some sugar and fix it but I had to keep going, and there was NO WAY that I was going to disassemble to fix it at home. Oh well its tastes the same and I think its still pretty impressive for a first time. Along the lines of cake decorating is my last story. This is what happens when mom gets caught up in the rush of the hours before class starts and is frantically trying to finish the prep work. Little sisters get baby-napped! I was in a flurry in the kitchen pulling stuff together for class when I realized the front room was WAY too quiet. I turn the corner and they're both gone! My heart just sank, I headed for the hall hoping Charlotte had learned to instantaneously crawl and they were playing in Emma's room, but fearing I was going to find them unconscious at the bottom of our stairs, but I hadn't heard any screaming.... Sure enough they were both fine and in Emma's room. I asked Emma what had happened and she said she needed Charlotte's help picking out a shirt. Then I asked how she got her in there and she showed me. I almost died laughing. Of course the video is a re-enactment but just as funny. Charlotte is one good sport. and the baby gate is a permanent fixture.

We party just as hard......

So it was one of the biggest hang-over days of the year..... Die hard Saint Paddy's day celebrators slumped into work today with black coffee in hand.....

OH WHAT THE HECK DO I KNOW?! I am not one for bubbly or hard stuff or anything in between, I have a feeling even if I did I wouldn't be able to "hold it." In this house we don't need no stinkin' liquor, just bring on the SUGAR!
Per request I sent a festive cake. It was a white cake that was turned BRIGHT GREEN, of course about the color of the dark frosting you see but a few shades brighter! I sent a disclaimer taking no responsibility for any change in any digestive system of any participating eater.... I can't help it, it was fun using a whole bottle of green food coloring! The filling was a chocolate raspberry ganache and while it was a little on the fudgey side, a little hard to cut through... it was still really decadent.

The girls and I weren't quite as festive, we got to spend our day taking 6 month old Charlotte to the Pediatrician for her well baby checkup and immunizations..... So not only is she teething and miserable, but as my kids have a tendency, she got sick from the shots, I can't blame her, 4 is a lot. A "Bright green nose"showed up, oh, I guess she was festive...:) Our saving grace was the teething biscuit which she thoroughly enjoyed as well as some after dinner entertainment. The girls love it when Levi comes home and so while I may get more of the dramatics during the day, the theatrics come out at night. We have a couple of divas in training. Emma has an uncanny way of making us all forget our stresses, even Charlotte as miserable as she was got a kick out of her sister.

Don't worry as weather gets warmer we will find better activities......We hope everyone had as much as we did on this very green day.

Cute Pics just for fun

Before I forget I wanted to post a few pictures of the girls. As I alluded to in the previous post, we got pictures taken of Charlotte akin to the ones that were taken of Emma when she was about a month. These along with some Christmas pictures are what I want to show you in hopes of satisfying some insatiable appetites.... you know who you are....

This first one is of Emma (obviously) taken by our sweet friend Lanay, who I can't thank enough. Emma was pretty good while these pictures were taken but this is definitely one of my faves, for more than one reason. I love the sweet little smirk on her face, and nothing is better than a sleeping child, especially to two rookie parents.

This next picture is recent and was taken by wonderful Garth Walker while we vacationed in Oregon over Christmas. I think this is by far a family favorite, everything seems to work in this one. I actually really like the fact that Emma is looking up at the camera, that's her personality, my cute Emma.

These next pictures were taken today as we got home from church. First of all I would like to thank Grandma (my mom) for giving Emma such a beautiful dress that I had to find a bigger one so that the girls could match ( I am excited Emma is wearing the 2T and there is a girls size 4-6 I might have to do it again in a couple years...:) I would also like to thank Nana (Levi's mom) for making Emma such a beautiful coat and beret to match the one I already had. The girls looked adorable the last two Sundays, and what's the fun in having two girls if you can't dress them alike? Also thanks again to Aunt Karen and her kids for picking the dress up and hand delivering it, your check is in the mail.

I love these pictures because this is so my girls, Emma being gooky (goofy) and Charlotte trying to reign her back in (notice her hand on Emma's collar) This last picture made me realize how much my cute little family has grown. Emma is no longer a baby but a very smart little girl. And my sweet Charlotte is going on 4 months!

I want to thank my handsome husband for putting up with all this estrogen. You sure can't tell by his face the drama that we girls can be. You've aged well babe. He's a fantastic father and husband and us girls just adore him..

Thanks Levi, we love you!

Well I hope this satisfies the picture need, and I am sure there will be another drama/comedy story to share in no time.... until then.

8 weeks, where does the time go?

Charlotte
9-17-08
My sweet Charlotte,
Oh how the time has flown. I can’t believe that you have been here only two months, it seems like you’ve always been a part of our family. We are so grateful that you are here. It was so nice to hear you cry those first few moments, letting me know that you were okay.
And it was quite comical that I could still hear you a few doors away as you were being cleaned up. Boy, do you have a set of lungs.It was so incredible to see your little determined spirit from the very beginning. I could tell from those moments if I could just give you a good example you would be just fine. It was so amazing to have you settle down once I could hold you. You have an innate instinct for way things should be.
Your daddy and I have really enjoyed how much you want to cuddle, you are such a little snuggle-bug A perfect Autumn baby, content to be wrapped up in sleepers and blankets all cozy and warm.
Despite your dramatic entrance, you are a pretty laid back baby, content to sit back and watch the world especially your big sister Emma. I have this feeling that you're enjoying taking it in at a rapid-fire pace, eager to learn and grow and catch up. I appreciate you being a captive audience for her that has helped everyone out. I hope you two will continue to have a special bond, she loves you so much.
It’s been entertaining to find out what motivates you. At ten days old you didn’t like being on your tummy enough that you learned to roll to your back. It’s still quite difficult to give you tummy time; you would rather sit up on someone’s lap. You are such a smart girl and such a good baby. We love to watch you smile and cannot believe how fast you’ve changed. Please be patient with your mom as I struggle to keep up.
Thank you again for blessing our lives with your sweet spirit. We love you “Charla-girl”
Love
Mommy, Daddy & Emma

Sisters, sisters....

Yes, I do love the movie "White Christmas", and I am excited that in a few short weeks I won't have to feel guilty for watching it. However but I am talking about two sweet sisters that are in my house currently sleeping, thankfully, it is only 6:30 am.....
I could not have asked for sweeter girls! Before and while pregnant with Charlotte I was truly torn between Emma's need for a playmate ( there were days when I wished to be pregnant right away in order to get a playmate here soon) and her cute attention-needing, not sure if she would/could share personality ( there were also days that I swore she would be an only child, or I was going to wait until she was in school, if not college...) However Emma has risen to the responsibility of "big" sister quite beautifully, and she is such a big help! She simply adores Charlotte, whenever Charlotte cries, Emma stops what she is doing and says, " I'm coming baby, its okay Charlotte!" Charlotte for the most part is pretty chill and even when she isn't she's so cute I can't get upset. I know we haven't posted recent photos and people are asking... Mom, this is for you.....
This is Emma's " hey you" stance, she gets down to where Charlotte is and coos at her "hey you... hey you" in an effort to get Charlotte to calm down or look her way...

Playing possum.....

I am not sure what happened here,Charlotte was probably getting sick of the flash.

This is such a cute picture it almost makes me want to justify Emma still using a pacifier at 2 1/2, if Levi had his way she would be off the pacifier and potty-trained, and probably enrolled in college.... don't judge me, I have had a lot of deal with... I am working on it.

Charlotte Photos

We are all now home and have taken a few more photos, and thought we would share.

Charlotte lounging in the hospital

Emma's new "smile for the camera" pose

Dad helping Emma out

Charlotte's going home outfit (can you actually find her?)

We told Emma she was the new babysitter

Emma found out Charlotte likes Disney movies too!

Introducing Charlotte Haupt

Today we welcomed Charlotte to our family! She was born at 1:20 pm weighing 8 lbs 4 oz and 19.5 inches long. Torrie delivered Charlotte by C-Section. She is named after Charlotte Mee, a member of the Martin Handcart Company, her story can be found here. Both Mom and Baby are doing well. Charlotte may have a blood clotting issue. Currently we don't know how serious it is, but will keep you informed. We are so excited to have her here!

P.s. For those that were wondering Charlotte came on the day I was to defend my thesis! I guess our girls like to be excuses to avoid final exams (Emma postoned 2 finals herself).

Emma was excited to meet her sister

Mom and Baby are bonding well

UPDATE: Charlotte's blood work came back negative. She is perfectly healthy. ~Just another example of the power of the Priesthood.