Looking for a home to rent has been a frustrating ordeal. There have only been a certain amount of homes on the market and once we have seen them, our days have been pretty empty. In order to keep from going crazy we started to explore Portland. We spent one day at the OMSI science museum. They have planetarium there and an IMAX theater. The kids had so much fun running from room to room that I hardly got any pictures of them. Here are my two future astronauts.


And my future scientist. Austin says that he just loves 'science-ing.'
Another day we took the kids to the Portland children's museum. One of the first stops they took was the make-up room.
They took a lot of care getting their faces just right. And voila, perfection.Doesn't Ethan look like a snow-cone?

The next favorite place that the kiddies went to was the water room. When they finally got tired of it and wanted to move on, we all had to wait for Robert to finish up his experiments.


Here is a sweet picture of Rob and big-boy Ethan.

And during the rest of our time together, the kids have been entertaining me with the silly things that they say.

Whenever the kids refer to Charlotte they call it "our real home." "When we were at our real home, I really loved my teacher."

Robert, for some reason, seems to think that our Austin is a bit of a nerd. I couldn't figure it out. The conversation that the kids had seemed perfectly normal it me. We had nearly finished eating and the conversation was going on like this:

Mama "I love you kids more than I love chocolate."
Ethan, "I love you more than being a rock star."
Alaina, "I love you more than swimming at the pool."
Austin, "I love you more than all my 'ventions." (inventions)
This went on for another 5 minutes until Austin decided to get really crazy.
Austin, "I love you more than the Table of Contents."
And before I could stop laughing he added, "And I love you more than recycling!" That is coming from the boy who wants to be a 'garbage picker up guy so I can clean up my earth.'
I thought it was a profession of true love but Robert thought it was super nerdy. I guess sweet Austin is more like his Mom than we thought. (Can you see 6 year old me pushing up my glasses taped in the middle with my nose in a book? Yeah? 'Cause that is pretty much how it happened.) Nerds Unite!

Alaina uses a calculator like a cell phone. She walks around have lengthy conversations with imaginary people. They sound like they are two-sided, with long pauses and everything. The last one I heard made me smile. "Why do you keep calling me. *long pause* You called me like ten times already Miley Cyrus. *pause* Miley Cyrus, I can't keep talking to you all the time. *extra long pause* I know I'm your best friend, Miley Cyrus but I'm getting in the car with my brothers. *click* Whew. That Miley Cyrus is always calling on my phone."

And one last Lainy story. At church today, when I went to pick up Laina, she was chatting non-stop to her teacher. The teacher turned to me and the boys and said, "Oh. Let's see. You must be Alaina's mom. And you," pointing to Ethan, "must be the big brother I've been hearing about. Ethan, right. And you must be Austin, Alaina's twin." Turning back to me, she didn't miss a beat. "I hear you moved from Charlotte and are still looking for a house. I sure hope you find one in our ward." I'm now wondering what part of our family history Alaina didn't mention. We said our goodbyes and started out the door. As a last though her teacher said, "And Alaina. I can't wait to see you next week in that green dress that you were talking about." Looking over her shoulder, Alaina looked straight at her and said, with feeling, "And I can't wait to see your smile when your see me wearing the dress." Hair flip. Exit diva.