How very refined

We went out to a BBQ place to grab some grub and it was a little chilly so Trace ordered hot chocolate to drink. I told him to be careful and blow it off before drinking since I thought it may be too hot when it first arrived. He looked at me with a "duh" look and said; "Yes, I know Mother.". Then after stirring the melting whipped cream into the hot liquid with his spoon, he took a sip and I noticed that he held his pinkie out when sipping. I asked him about it and he said; "Yes, Mother, I'm not an animal." Silly boy. Silly, silly boy!

Birth Mom

Trace has a lot of friends now that have little siblings coming into their families and he has been asking questions about whether he will be an only child and/or how he got to be a part of our family. We've never hidden the fact that he's adopted from him and he really seems to like that he is so special and that he was truly an answer to our years of prayers and that his Birth Mom knew she was bringing our child into the world since we couldn't do it alone. He asked what the "lady that had me in her tummy" looked like and I was again reminded that all the time I spent with Cristy in the hospital and before she gave birth, we never got a single picture of her. I think we were just so freaked out that this little human that had stolen our hearts already wouldn't actually be able to come home with us and we didn't want to do anything that may potentially upset Cristy or her friend, Megan that had come with her to help her. Something I really regret to this day. Since Trace was asking questions, I decided to do a quick search online and stumbled across a Facebook account with one picture on it. I took a quick screen shot and showed it to Trace the next day. He looked, asked who the man is with her (I'm guessing her husband, NOT her boyfriend that the DNA test proved to be the Birth Father that she was with while her husband was incarcerated) and then he shrugged and moved on. I'm so grateful that he knows we are his forever family and always will be. We'll always be grateful to Cristy for the incredible gift she gave us, but I can't help being thankful that Trace loves his parents fiercely and really don't seem to have much concern about how he became a part of our family.

Snuggle Party

Caught Trace and the puppy cuddling in the LoveSac the other day. Cute little creatures at our house, that's for sure.

Valentines Day

This year for Valentines Day, Trace got Valentines to hand out to his class that had little sticky bug toys on them with sayings like; "You don't bug me" and "Let's stick together". Last year we didn't have much creativity with his box and I vowed to do better this year. We looked at a couple ideas online and decided to attempt making an over sized Lego brick for his box. Of course, he wanted the color to be red, which worked out great since that was the color of the plastic cups we used. I think it turned out okay although we'll have to try to raise the bar again in 2nd grade. 

Growing and Growing

East Sandy had the botanists from Red Butte Garden come to Trace's class and teach them about how plants grow and change. They planted seeds and watered them and measured their progress as they grow. Trace gave us an update almost every day and even volunteered to go in on a day that there was no school to water the plants. Such a green thumb!

Good Looking Fellas

When dressing for church, Trace told his Dad he wanted to wear the same thing as he was wearing so they would "match". After piecing together each of their outfits, we came up with a simple black and white ensemble that reminded me of the movie "Men in Black". I told them so and then Trace just HAD to pose with sunglasses to complete the look. Love that kid so very much.