Our Trip To Beloved Texas...

Right Before we left for Texas (below). Standing in the middle of our completly frozen lake...freezing, of course. :)





































H-E-B! We miss and love you!!! :)


























Daniel and Emma



























Downtown Houston!!! :)




































Myself, Tiffany, Christa, Daniel and Melissa at the Durens house.


























Mr. Duren, John, Mrs. Duren, Mom and Dad.

Christa, Dad, Mom and Daniel together at our dear friends, the Durens home.

Christa, William and Daniel at Goode & Co for dinner.

We watched the most adorable movie today. The Slipper and the Rose.

A lovely version of the Cinderella story. I've seen 3 versions, and this, I must say, is my favorite. The music was lively and fun, the costumes GORGEOUS (underlined, capitalized, italicized, bolded and underlined!), the dances (which we're bent on learning!) beautiful and everything about it, sweet and intriguing. I highly reccomend it. It was made by the makers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins, so don't be suprised when the dances slightly remind you of Chimney Sweeps or a bunch of old men trying to create another flying car.... :)

But it was lovely and I really enjoyed it!

jess

p.s we go to Liberty Day tommorow! I'll be sure to post about it!! :)

Happy 21st Birthday Tiffany!!!!!!

This birthday wish goes to my dear sister, Tiffany Faith McDonald. A sister and a friend.

HAPPY TWENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY, TIFFANY!!!!!!!!!

She's so amazing and so sweet. (Aren't I blessed to have so many wonderful friends in my family?? :) I love you, Tiff!

The Lone Star State...um...Yeehaw! :D

Y'all...

For those who were wondering about Emma, nothing has happened yet. She's scheduled for a visit to a surgeon (it's a certain kind of surgeon but I can't remember what he's called.) on the 20th. I will be sure to update after that though.

And...guess where we are right now! :) Texas! Wahoo! (or should I say "yeehaw"? :D) We had to do some stuff with our store, so we came down on Tuesday! We're all so happy to be back in the great Lone Star state...even if only for a week. We never realized how much we all missed skyscrapers, traffic and hundreds of stores only minutes away. We drove by our old house and saw a shiny black car parked in the driveway (a bit different than our 15 passenger E350! :D) and a junior high school sign planted in the yard.
Right now we're staying with my Aunt and Uncle in Houston. So far, the trip has been pretty uneventful. Though we've seen many of our very dear friends and relatives! Daniel and Christa also came down to visit us (and help out at the store.) and we've had a lovely time with them...it being the first time we've seen them since the wedding.
I do have one pretty humerous story before I close, though.

My aunt has this huge stuffed tiger by her front door. And it looks very real. Well, we ordered pizza while we were here and this little guy rang the door bell to deliver our pizza. Tiff opened the door and his eyes got wide as he saw the savage beast. :) He pointed (his hand shaking) "T..i..g..errr..." He trembled.
"Oh, don't worry, it's fake." Tiff assured him.
He smiled nervously, took the check gave her the pizza and ran for his car. LOL. It was pretty funny and we all had a good laugh afterwards.

I'll post photos soon! :)

jess

Emma Katherine

Since Tiffany already worded it so beautifully, I'll just copy and paste what she had to say on her blog.

Late last week a strange lump appeared on Emma's right hand. She visited the doctor today and he suggested that we take her to a pediatric surgeon right away. It looks like whatever is underneath the skin will need to be removed. He wasn't sure what caused it, and thought that it was so strange, he called a colleague in to take a look at it as well.

Thankfully, Emma thinks this whole thing is rather humorous. :) Last week, she came up to me and told me she had a bump on her hand. Later, she told my parents, "my bone is too big!" ;-) She has been good natured so far, and doesn't seem to mind that the doctors will make her go to sleep so they can remove the lump from her hand.

We would be very grateful if you could keep Emma in your prayers as she has doctor visits and most likely surgery. If you could also remember our family, especially our Mom, during this time, we would really appreciate it. I'll keep you posted as things progress.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 551 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Abbott and Costello

I got this off of a friends blog and was really amused! :)

ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den, and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: Okay, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office and it has windows! Alright, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W."
COSTELLO: Whatever, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?
ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: If its a long movie I also want to see reels 2, 3, and 4. Can I watch them?
ABBOTT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great, with what?
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?
ABBOTT: You click the blue "1."
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOTT: The blue "1."
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue W?
ABBOTT: The blue 1 is Real One and the blue W is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there are three words in "office for windows"!
ABBOTT: No, just one. But it’s the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.
COSTELLO: And that word is real one?
ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.
COSTELLO: Stop! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping you have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money....

Happy 19th Birthday to Melissa!!

19 years ago my lovely sister, Melissa came into the world. I'm writing this post to wish her a very happy birthday.

I love you, Moosh! :)














Photo Above: Melissa and I in 2006 enjoying the Texas state flower...Bluebonnets!! :)

The Photos I Promised!!! :)

Above: Emma Katherine...um...enjoying her tea? :)




















Tiffany aka Georgiana Darcy





















Melissa














Grace Bandy aka Louise Willoughby( Willoughby's sister, if he had one that is. and btw, she didn't approve of his actions at all! :D) and Myself aka Henrietta Palmer (Mr. Palmer's sister) :D if he had a sister that is....:D





















Oh, and what's our tea party without Prince Charming? And he's...uh...stuffing his face. :)




















Grace trying on half of her dress. :D
















Mr. Chippy, the cat that adopted us. :)

More snow this week! It's all so beautiful and almost unearthly. Ah! I love snow! :)


What a week this has been! So much has been happening (what's new? :D) in so little time! :)

Well, on Wendsday evening Dad and Caleb went to the annual Patriarch's Meeting with the men at our church, so Mom, Tiff and I put the kids to bed and watched "Emma" (the Gywneth Paltrow version, which Mom had never seen before.). After the movie was over (it was 10:00 or so) we all sat around and read books. Then Mom and Tiff went to bed and Melissa and I were stuck waiting for the men to return...with Grace Bandy! As soon as they got home we all rushed up to bed. :) Mrs. Bandy was so sweet and sent Grace with her waffle maker and waffle batter. So we had a delicious breakfast and then Tiffany and Grace went down to sew Grace's gown (for Liberty Day). That evening we decided to watch "Sense and Sensibility", since Grace had never seen it and the costumes are so gorgeous. The next day Tiff and Grace finished Grace's gown and we all dressed up in costumes, did hair and had a tea party! :) It was a lot of fun. Lol. We all gossiped, and chatted and talked about the latest scandals ("did you hear that Lydia Bennet eloped with a man named Wickham?"). It was a lot of fun and we tea partied the afternoon away. :)
Then Grace left at around 3:00 and we all piled into the car to go to the Neisens house! We had so much fun there! Sarah took me on one of the ponies and we rode all around their property, which was beautiful. It was so exciting! Of course, besides my shoe falling off numerous times, it was absolutly wonderful! And after it got dark we all went inside to eat dinner. After dinner we spent a little more time with the horses (which was quite hilarious, Grace was trying to get the stubborn old thing to go and it wasn't listening to her. :D) we went back in to play "Scattagories" which was also quite funny.
Oh, and I got photos of Grace Bandy's visit (unfortunatly we forgot the camera when we went to the Neisen's house.) which I will post as soon as I get them loaded!

jessica

December Photos

Photos from the month of December.
















(back row) Melissa (18), Tiffany (20) with William (15 mos) on her lap, Me (16).
(front row) Caleb (10), Grace (5), Emma (4) and Abigail (8)















Above: Us young people raising our glasses on New Years Eve.

The Telephone Charades line at church today! :)

Melinda Sanford (16), Me (16), Sierra Candler (13) and Susannah Sanford (15)

Sierra and I playing Telephone Charaes today at Church. p.s. what happened to my arms?! :D

Moriah wondering why in the world she's playing such a strange game. :D

Happy 2007!!!

What a month this has been! So many things have been going on in such a short amount of time! I guess the most exciting thing of the month would be our New Years get together.
We had two families from church over (one family, the Candlers have 5 kids and the Sanfords have 14 kids.) and what a time we had! The Sanfords brought 4 or so galloon jugs of sweetened (caffeinated) tea and we drank it ALL! So you can imagine how hyper we all were. :D We had so much fun! We played Mafia, The Greatest Human Chair (which was NOT very succesful...but hilarious!), Four on a Couch, Telephone Charades (of course!) and Darts. Garrison Sanford and Tiffany had a very difficult time trying to get everyone quiet and calmed down. Afterwards, the Dads came down (and Mrs. Sanford) and we sand some Psalms and learned The Day is Past and Gone in parts! It turned out beautiful!
When we ended the singing it was 11:30 or so. We talked and drank yet more tea until 11:55. Then, we all stood in a big circle (only us young people, of course.) holding our glasses of iced tea. At the stroke of midnight we raised our glasses and toasted. We all yelled, "To the New Year!" at the top of our lungs. It was so neat! It was one of the best New Year parties we've ever had, it was a bit sad that fire works are illegal up here, so we couldn't set a big one off at midnight, but the toasting was a lot of fun.

Right now life is a bit more normal, the freezing rain that we have been getting is a little uncomfortable, but we're surviving! :D
Also, a neighbors cat seems to have adopted us....since we've never had a pet before, we not really sure what to do with it. Mom and Tiff dislike it immensely, but, we'll see. ;) I'm not really crazy about cats myself, but I appreciate the fact that they eat mice. :)
I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas and a wonderful new year! Happy 2007!!!

jessica nicole

p.s Photos to follow!!!

Another Tag!!!

Josiah tagged me. So here goes. :)


List 6 things about yourself which are either weird, habitual, unusual, or just plain fun to hear about and tag six to ten others.

1. I enjoy singing opera at the top of my lungs for the world to hear even though my voice can't really...ahem...stretch as far as I would like it to. :)

2. I hate frogs, bugs and any little nasty creatures that are like that. They absolulty gross and disgust me. And I'm scared to death of them.

3. I don't really like chocolate.

4. I think Panda Bears are the best animals and are soooo adorable and if I could I'd want a pet Panda...even though it would eat me alive. :)

5. I like the new Pride and Prejudice better than the old one. And that tends to freak some people out.

6. Whenever I go to someones house I make a beeline for the bookshelf.

Okay, I tag the following:

Brooke Boriack
Megan Carlson
AnnaVon Holton
Natalya Kracko
Esther Habegger
Sierra Candler
Caleb McDonald
Joshua Habegger
Brandon Huber
Jonathan Erber

-Jessica

Okay, I decided to post after all. Seeing as I found the perfect thing to post and I can't resist putting it up. :)





















































































Now, Guess what they're doing in the photos. :D


-jessica

The Nativity Story

The Nativity Story

What a powerful movie! I sat in awe in the theatre, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It was beautiful! When Jesus is born and Joseph holds up baby Jesus and laughs I felt such joy fill me!

The movie was wonderfully done, the acting, the music, the script. It was gorgeous. And it really made you feel as if you were there, feeling Mary's frustration as no one believed her story, feeling Joseph's pain as he saw Mary when she arrived back from her visit to Elizabeth. There's one part where they are on their way to Bethlehem and after Joseph has fallen asleep Mary sees his dirty, bloody feet, sore from walking endlessly on the rocky ground. What does she do? She wets a cloth and washes his feet. It was beautiful. I cried, I must admit. I left the movie in a daze, it was that amazing.

If you haven't seen it yet, please go see it. You will leave the theatre changed and you will see Christmas in a whole different light.

Merry Christmas!

I had a very interesting thing happen to me earlier. Actually, I couldn't stop laughing. :)

I was toting William around this evening when I made my way into Mom and Dad's bathroom. I then saw Abigail in the bathtub relaxing. Deciding to play around with her I yelled, "AHHH! There's a girl in the tub!"
Abigail then proceeded to jump up (higher then I've ever seen her before.) onto her feet and screaming.
She then yelled, "WHERE?!"

lol.

jessica

"Walking in a winter wonderland...."

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

What bliss! What joy! Our first snow today!!!! Over a foot deep! We've had a day full of sledding, snowmen and snowball fights! We're SO happy!!

Pictures to come soon!

Wedding Photos Part 2

Photo Courtesy of The Blanchard Family

Wedding Photos Part 1

Photo Courtesy of The Blanchard Family

It's Over...

Well, it's over!
And I didn't faint, I didn't cry (well, I almost did.) and I didn't drop down dead. I am very impressed with myself.
But, my sister isn't a McDonald anymore. She won't be doing the dishes on Sunday night, I won't giggle over movies with her anymore, I won't say, "Give William to Christa to watch!" :).

Christa was lovely. The ceremony wasn't very long, only 40 minutes or so and everything went smoothly (thankfully!). The little girls (aka flower girls) had a wonderful time tossing flowers all over the aisle (lots, I assure you.). Tiffany, Melissa and I (the bridesmaids) made the terrible mistake of not eating breakfast...actually, not eating anything all morning. We were all nervous, and we hadn't eaten so you can imagine how we felt. :) But we all ended up fine!
I will try to post photos as soon as I get them. David Price was getting the photos for the wedding but I'm not sure when we'll get them so I'll post them whenever I do.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! :D

~jessica nicole~

Life's Changes...

I honestly can't believe it! The wedding is only five days away and it seems like it was yesterday that we were little girls dreaming about the day we would get married; laughing about what Prince Charming might look like, the pranks we would play on him, what the colors of our wedding would be...and now it's all coming true.

I thought that the day when one of my dear sisters would be married would be an eternity away. I tried to make myself believe that we would always be together; that nothing would change. We're a family...why should anything be different? We were content.
Now I'm losing a sister. She won't be just down the street either. I won't be able to see her whenever I like because she will be thousands of miles away...

I have to admit, I hate change. I like everything to stay just the same. But I know real life isn't like that at all. And every day, the older I get, it changes more and more. Life is such a difficult thing! I'm going to miss my big sister.

jessica


P.S. Now, Tiff, don't you get any silly notions about running off and getting married too!

Photos!!!

Below are photos of the Howard's visit and the Birthday bash. Enjoy!

p.s. you can find more on Tiffany's blog!

jessica

Tiffany and Grace in the fall leaves

Abigail and Tommy

Mr and Mrs Howard

Dad and Mom chatting

Howard and McDonald kids watching a movie...

Playing Ultimate Frisby

Grace, Aleta and Abigail having tea...

Only some of the cars at the birthday bash...

How very sad.
My sister is getting married in 16 days!!!
What shall I do?!



"Sisters, Sisters! There were never such devoted sisters..."

Guests, Parties, Sickness, fishing, boating, frisby, fall time...

I must admit, I've been so terrible at posting lately! But when you've heard how busy we've been you might sympathize! :)

At the beginning of last week we had the Osborne family over from Idaho. They stayed and we had a lovely visit. Then, on Wendsday they left and the Howard family joined us from Virginia!

On Saturday (while the Howard's were still with us) we had a huge birthday bash for Caleb and Emma at our home! It was so much fun!!! We enjoyed a lot of boating (the Evans's brought their rubber raft, we have a canoe and our neighbors lent us their paddle boat.), fishing, chatting, and Ultimate Frisby (yes, I actually did play, believe it or not!! :D) It was a very exciting day!

On Sunday we had the Evans family over and enjoyed fishing (a lot of blue gill was caught.), though they ended up having to leave early because a lady from our church went into labor and Mrs. Evans was helping with the birth. After they left we put the kids to bed and put on "Henry V" (we were going to watch "Master and Commander" but it couldn't be found!). Right before the battle of Agincourt, Grace ran out of bed and threw up everywhere! We got that cleaned up and turne dthe movie back on. A little bit later we hear her throw up again...you get the picture. It happened four or five times. Then Emma threw up as well and we found ourselves with two sick babies!! After the movie was over (around midnight) we all piled up to bed.

Then, today Tiff and I spent hours and hours raking our yard. Let me tell you, it was quite an adventure, because I've never raked a yard in my life (I've never really had to, since at our old house all we had was a twig of a tree in our front yard! :D). But it was so much fun! We skipped around with our rakes looking like total idiots, but enjoying every minute of it! :) We set up speakers and a cd player outside and listened to music, and after we made a pile (a little shorter than 5 feet and very wide!) we set our rakes down and jumped into the leaves!! Oh what bliss!! It was fabulous and we can't wait to do it again tommorow...lol...except that we're very sore. :D

We're still enjoying the Howard's wonderful company! They leave on Wendsday morning. We're trying to convince them to stay longer and to go house hunting here in Illinois! :) So far, we haven't succeded, but...we'll see. :)

Pictures to follow!

Happy Birthday to Christa!!

On this day 22 years ago my sisters Christa Marie was born. It seems so strange to me that soon she won't be living in our home anymore...that when she turns 23 we will be thousands of miles away. But she will always be close to our hearts.
So, Happy 22nd Birthday, Christa. We all love you.

jess

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Tiffany . So here goes! :)

Five Things in my Freezer:
Pumpkin Cheesecake (from the Cheesecake Factory!)
Reces Peanut Butter Cups
Ground Beef
Frozen Chicken
Apples (Delicious mixture of...stuff, don't you think?)

Five Things in my Car:
Tissues
Coats
Cds
DVD player
A bag of Andes Mints!!!! :)

Five Things in my Closet:
Christa's Clothes
Tiffany's Clothes
Melissa's Clothes
My Clothes
Oh, and shoes.

Five Things in my Purse:
Makeup
My Wallet
Wadded up candy wrappers from I don't know when
A Minnie Mouse Watch from when I was about 6.
A small tin of mints

I tag:
Brooke Boriack
Danya Powell
Anna Von Holton
Jonathan Erber
Brandon Huber