December Randoms, Part 1

I think I have too many "random" pictures from December for just one post, so here's the first part. 

Mishell's Glasses:

Mishell got much needed new glasses and she rocks them, if she does say so herself. :)

Cookies: Apparently we made cookies one day. The end.

 Temple Square:
We made our annual visit to Temple Square to see the lights with whoever in the family could make it. We had a great time, despite the crowds and the cold. It is always a beautiful reminder of the season.

Shriners: Very nearly one of the most incredible places in the world is Shriner's Hospital for children. We are lucky enough to have one right here in SLC. Mishell had her first appointment with them in early December to assess her legs. One of her legs is longer than the other, so we met with an orthopedic doctor (the same one that has seen Flor) to see what can be done. She recommended first getting an MRI of her brain to see if there is something going on there that would explain the difference in growth, which could also explain the issue with one of her eyes not functioning as well as the other (essentially she only uses one eye to see- unless the good eye is covered, then she is forced to use the other one- that's my weird and non-scientific explanation). So, we got the MRI scheduled and a follow up visit with a nuerologist scheduled at this appointment. We then made an appointment to see the orthopedist again in February. She made mention that she may want to do surgery on Mishell's longer leg to stop the growth and allow the other to catch up. That decision was not fully made until the February visit, but more on that later.

 Horse therapy continues:
Mishell loves seeing her horse friend, Mr. Tee, every week and it has done wonderful things for her. More on that later too, but here are a few pictures.

Mr. Tee was busy this week, so she got to work with this ornery miniature horse. It was pretty funny. 

 Ward party: We absolutely love our ward. We had a wonderful Christmas party with them with some amazing music. We have some seriously talented people here!

I apparently took two random pictures and that was that...

 Thank you cards (finally): We finally got around to sending out all our thank you cards for Mishell's adoption. We had so many to send. We are truly blessed! We didn't ask for a thing, but we were still showered with love, gifts, clothes for Mishell, money, etc. We have the most generous and Christ-like family and friends. Thank you all.

 Flor was student of the week: I know, you are as shocked as I am! Given that her teacher only sends me texts about every other day about how awfully behaved Flor is (true story, also for another day), it was a true shocker that she was designated as "student of the week" for the whole school for "kindness to others". Way to go Flor!

 UAS Christmas Dinner: I love the ladies I work with. My little company is expanding and we get to interact with some of the best adoption workers out there. The hard part is that we all live far apart, so we don't get together all that often, especially with our contractors. So, we had a great Christmas dinner at the Mandarin to all catch up and spend time together. We just missed Koleen and Charity, but we don't blame them for not coming as the weather was pretty terrible that day.

 School Choir: Hallie and Mishell both were attending the school choir practices at 8 am on Thursdays, so Jace and I made sure to attend their concert at the school. For some reason, Mishell didn't get up there to sing, but Hallie did and she did a great job.

 And finally, this picture. I am not even sure what the occasion was for them to both be wearing their Ecuador jerseys, but they looked cute, so there you go.