Fun with Grandma Marcia

Spring Break kind of hit at a good time of year for us. It was right after Bel's surgery. Since the kids didn't have school and Jaime didn't need to work Jaime and I were able to go stay with Bel to help care for her and Chris could keep working and not take any more time off work. Mom so kindly took the kids for three days for us. They had so much fun. 

Playing with play dough

Lindsey likes to be artistic with painting and other fun art projects. 

Aidan and Olivia played with the dentist play dough set. That's one long green tongue!

Olivia's amazing cupcakes.

Lindsey must be missing winter already. Look at that snow man. :)

They had a picnic outside. Kids love to eat outside. 

And of course the real baking. 

Apparently it got a little cold for them. We've been having such warm weather that I didn't pack jackets for them. Grandma solved the problem!

Lindsey will climb a tree any chance she gets. 

She's also taught the others how fun it can be. My Grandpa Noble said, "Look at that tree of monkeys." 

One afternoon Mom took the kids to her friends who have a bunch of animals. They were so excited to go see them!

The goats were only three days old. 

The boys have no fear of animals.

They got to help feed the goats. The owner said it was nice to have some help. It made it go faster to get the work done. If my kids could they'd probably go help every day. Now if WE had a farm, I highly doubt it'd be as fun for them because then it'd become a chore. :D

It really is sweet to see.

The grownups needed a snack as well.

Aw the piglets. You know Lindsey and pigs. Oh you don't? Well she has quite a liking to pigs. She has ever since she got a stuffed pig on her first Christmas from her Great Grandma Naylor. Lindsey still has that pig. He's pretty limp and not as fluffy anymore but she still loves him. She named him Oink. So yeah, she still likes pigs. 

Here's the big pig fellas

...and the youngsters.

While the kids were having tons of fun with Mom, Jaime and I spent our days taking care of Bel and taking her to  her appointments. When we were at her followup with the surgeon the Dr. Evans read us Bel's pathology report. She had a Pathological Complete Response to chemotherapy! There was no cancer left after she finished her chemo treatments. No cancer in the lymph nodes they removed so no cancer to spread anywhere in her body. She is cancer free. :D It was joyful, tearful news to hear. 

She does still have her bad days after surgery however she's felt better after it than she thought she would. Jaime and I got her meals for her, I cleaned and dusted her house, helped her change and bathe. I can honestly say that serving her has helped my love for her grow. I have actually experienced with a fullness what prophets mean when they say that we can grow to love others by serving them. Not that I didn't love her before but now I truly love her so much! She texts and calls me regularly as well as me texting her. We miss each other when we're apart. I think of her often and she's always in my prayers. I'm always wondering how she's doing. I try not to text too much in case she's sleeping so she knows to text me with her daily updates on how she's doing if I'm not there. :) My heart aches when she says she's crying in pain or sadness or fear or when she's in pain or feeling sick. I just want her to be back to her old self and feeling happy and well. I'm going to have a hard time when she goes back to work all the time. It'll be weird not being able to talk to her during the day so much.