Resolve Stuff

Every year I make New Years resolutions. Every year they are the same. "Become a better person" is usually the desired outcome. That encompasses the usual goals- starve myself into a size 6, spend 16 hours a day scrubbing my house with a toothbrush, become an expert on all things gospel related, I think you get my point. This year is no different, except I've resolved to use the gym membership I pay for every month along with my starving method. We'll see if that works.

Along with starving myself I have a few other things I want to work on. The biggest one is learning to forgive people in my life who have hurt me. I'm so serious about this one that I went and bought a book on it... I even read the first chapter. Then because I felt so forgiving I stopped so I wouldn't automatically be translated. Too many people would miss me. I'm not feeling so forgiving as of late though, I should probably start that book again. So beware all you wrong doers.... if all goes according to plan you'll be forgiven completely by the end of the year. Take THAT!

Another of my resolutions came from being completely inspired by this. I would never say this to her face but she's a wonderful person and a gifted blogger. (I like to think that because I blog stalk her daily that we are somehow friends and she wouldn't mind that I linked to her blog) This is a girl from my ward that I have never spoken to and randomly stumbled upon her blog. I've been completely sucked in by her open-ness and honesty. I'm addicted to reading her rants and raves. And my heart completely goes out to her. I've resolved to be more open about my life. If I can help someone by going through my life trials then it will be worth it. It's doing me no good to keep everything bottled inside. It's not healthy for my heart- and it's not helping me help you either. Like, did you know I can't have kids either? (have you been helped?)

So there you have it. Quite a bit different than hearing about my home decorating- but this is my first step to becoming "open" Dayna. I hope you like her. No worries though, you'll still get to read about my daily activities and home decorating attempts. I just have the "New Year- your life is going to change completely in the next 12 months" feeling that I get every January. Luckily I want you guys to be along for the whole ride.

Change Stuff

So here's another post made mostly for my mom. It sucks living so far away. Now when I need her to see something I have to go through the hassle of taking pictures and then sending them along- plus it never looks the same in pictures. Oh well.

So every year after Christmas I always get the decorating bug. Which basically means that I hate everything that I decorate with and want to start over from scratch. Since I'm not made entirely of money I have to make do with changing the furniture around. Lame replacement if you ask me.

So this weekend we recruited by brother in law Sam to come help us. I don't think he knew he was going to help us change furniture when he came over but he was a trooper. Plus he's a genius when it comes to TV stuff and he helped Jack hook up our surround sound. So see... he really was needed.

This was the final product of all our hard work. My mom gave us this super cute coffee table for Christmas. I absolutely love it! And I feel like it bumps my living room up a step in sophistication (as sophisticated as two college students can get at least).

Christmas Day Stuff

We had such a great Christmas Day. I told Jack weeks ago that I refused to have the ugly Christmas morning pictures that I have every year. You know the ones- my hair is sticking up in places I didn't even know hair could stick up, my mascara has formed dark black circles under my eyes, I have a huge red mark on the side of my face from sleeping on my hand.... you get the picture. It's awful. So this year I got up and showered and did my hair and makeup before we opened presents. Honestly- I'm glad I did. And I'm sure you, the viewers of these pictures, are glad I did as well.

Jack and I were so spoiled this year. We had so many presents under the tree. I guess that's one of the bad things about me starting my shopping well before Halloween- even when my money is spent well before Christmas I still feel like buying stuff. That's when "To Jack, From Dayna" turns into "To Ady's, From Santa" It's quite effective.

We got some great stuff this year. Some Highlights included a super cute red apron (which you can kind of see me wearing in one other pictures) and an adorable brown leather purse from Jack's mom. A sweet coffee table (black), a grill, and a pancake griddle from my Mama. Plus she gave me THE most amazing watch ever. She's so talented and crafty- she made it herself. Don't be jealous. Just ask her how much she would charge to do one for you. Jack gave me the greatest Cell Phone known to all mankind. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen and I'm still in shock that I actually get to talk on a cute phone instead of the cheap black piece of crap I own now. He also spoiled me with an amazing mustard yellow bag. SO cute! I love it. I got tons of movies, books, socks, and games. He really spoiled me this year. Jack got new basketball shoes, Calvin and Hobbes books, slippers, leather driving gloves, wii games, ps3 games and tickets to a Cleveland basketball game. Santa really spoiled us as well. He left a PS3 . Surround Sound System and a ton of movies.

After opening presents my family always has their big Christmas Breakfast with all my aunts, uncles and grandparents on my Dad's side. They eat Pancakes with Strawberries and whipped cream, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage, juice. Practically anything you could ever want in a breakfast. So this year we kept with that tradition and made the huge Wilkerson breakfast for just the two of us. So good! And we got to use our amazing new pancake griddle to cook it. Jack was like a little kid playing with his Christmas toy! For those of you who don't know- Jack is our official breakfast cook. I just help. No one can make breakfast like he can.

Our friend Higgs came over that afternoon because he was unable to go to Washington to be with his family due to work. So he came over for Christmas dinner. I made turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, rolls, jello, corn, pie, and cheesecake. It was so amazing. The yams were by far my favorite part. I hate yams but my friend Margo made the best ones last week when we went to eat at her house and I HAD to make them for my dinner. They are so amazing. Luckily Jack hates yams too so I get the leftovers all to myself! Plus I got to use all the sweet table decor I bought weeks ago.

It was one of the best Christmases ever. Hope yours was equally amazing. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Stuff

Here it is December 26th and I get to recap for all of you the amazing Christmas we had yesterday. Luckily I took the day off work so I could sit around in my pajama's and blog about said amazing Christmas.

We'll start with Christmas Eve.

This is Jack and I's 4th Christmas together. We love being with our families on the holidays, but this year we decided to have Christmas together at our home. We wanted to start our own traditions and be able to enjoy this special time together.

Christmas eve we made a Gingerbread house. It's probably the ugliest one I've ever seen but it has character. Oh well, I'm big on tradition and this is one tradition Jack wanted to start. After making our house we opened the wicked sweet pajama's that Bernard left for us (Our Christmas Brownie is the one who leaves us our Christmas pajama's) Then we made nachos's with guacamole (a favorite around here) and snuggled up on the couch to watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. This is an Ady family favorite and I have grown to love it throughout the years. It just doesn't feel like Christmas until we get our Griswold fix. After the movie we read the Christmas story and tried to get some sleep. We were in bed well before 9pm. I was in bed because I had a nasty head cold and just wanted to sleep. Jack was in bed because he knew the sooner he fell asleep the sooner Christmas would come. 5 hours later he finally dozed off and we woke up promptly at 6am to open presents.

Christmas morning was great... so great in fact that I believe it deserves a blog post of it's own!

Winning Stuff

And the winner is.... US! Jack and I kicked trash (I can totally trash talk AFTER I win right...) at our family Biggest Loser challenge. Jack had a whopping 24 pound loss and I trailed slightly behind him with a 17 pound loss. For all of you non-math-whizzes- that's 41 pounds for our team. We're pretty stoked. And for those of you wondering, yes, we are practically skin and bones. Now we have two weeks off and then we're starting another competition with the Tryon's. America's Next Top Sexy Skinny Utah Models here we come!

Party Stuff

This last weekend we headed back to Duchesne for the Wilkerson family Christmas party. Of course it's been like 76 degrees for the past 2 weeks and then the one weekend we want to drive back home it decides to dump snow on us. Lovely. Jack says the roads "weren't too bad" but unfortunately I have my mama's random fear of driving in any road condition and so I was freaked out the entire way home. But we made it. Alive. Safe. Etc.

It was so much fun to get together with everyone. It was my parents, all the kids and their spouses (there are two Wilkerson spouses now... they even have their own designated seating at family events). We ate stuffed potatoes, played hilarious Christmas games, and exchanged sibling gifts. It was SO much fun.

Jack and I got a sweet Scene It game from Todd and Dana and a magazine subscription. I even beat Jack for the FIRST time when we played Scene It. He's a little upset.

We gave my parents their presents too. This year the boys are taking Dad to a Jazz game the first part of January and the girls got my mom a Gift Certificate for Hollow Moon so we can all go eat together and have craft day! We're pretty stoked. It rocks giving your parents presents that you get to enjoy too!

It was a perfect addition to our annual Holiday festivities and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Lights Stuff

This weekend we met up with Jack's family in Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square and have dinner. Doug and Karen were already there Christmas shopping so Adam and Angeline drove down from Logan and Jack and I and Sam and Tiffany drove up from Orem. It was fun for all of us to get together and do something Christmasy before the holidays.

Ironically my brother Todd was also there with his in-laws so I got to see and talk to him for a bit.

After we walked around Temple Square for a while we stopped in Midvale at Buca di Beppo for dinner. It was so much fun. Their Chicken Parmigiana is SO good! It's always fun to get together with family.

Brownie Stuff

One of my favorite family traditions came to live with us a few days ago. His name is Bernard. He's the special "Christmas Brownie" (tiny elf like creature) who lives with us from Thanksgiving until Christmas. He leaves all sorts of goodies while we are sleeping- but only if we're good. Then he reports back to Santa on our behavior.

Bernard came to live with us the year Jack and I got married. Jack mocks me for carrying on a tradition totally intended for children while we are currently childless... but tradition is important. (isn't it Tryon?) So here he lives. Take a peak at these sweet Christmas Mugs he left us the other day. Isn't he a sweetheart!

*The Christmas Brownie is a tradition that the Wilkerson's have had for years. My parent's currently house a Brownie name Darby O'Dee. My Dad grew up with a brownie and all his brothers families house Brownies as well. Don't you think YOUR family needs a Brownie too?

Friend Stuff

There are few things better than good food, the movie PS I Love You, and a best friend. Combine all three and you get December's edition of girls night with Dayna and Margo.

I love having a married friend so close. It's one of my favorite things in the world. We have the occasional Sunday Dinner together, Holiday Parties, Girls Nights, "I need to use Margo's sewing machine" days. It's great. I just wish she lived a little closer so she could be my "I need sugar" go to girl!

I love so much about this girl. I love that no matter how long it's been since we've talked or seen each other we still know we're friends. She's so low maintenance. It's wonderful. I love that we know so much about each other. We already know how the other feels about things before they even say it. She's so supportive of everything I do. She was the first one I called the night Jack proposed. I woke her up in the middle of the night and then drove directly to her house. (I was on my way home from Jacks house- 20 minutes away from mine) She met me in her driveway wearing pajamas and sexy slipper and we hugged and jumped up and down and then she went back to bed and I drove home. That's the type of friends we are.

So Margo and I have this monthly traditional Girls Night. We eat food, catch up, watch movies, etc. It's great. Yesterday was my turn to host Girls Night. We ate chicken pita's, oriental salad, and fresh fruit and then watched PS I Love You and bawled. It was great. Haven't seen PS I Love You? Go watch it. Now. Turn off the computer. Buy the movie (cuz you'll want it for future "I need a good cry" days as well). And get ready to laugh, cry, smile, cringe- this movie is a hardcore mixture of emotions. It's great!

Better yet, get together with your married friend down the street and treat yourselves to your own Girls Night.

Christmas Stuff

I've been waiting for this time of the year for months now (literally). The time when I could pull out the 4 boxes of Christmas Decor that I have accumulated over the years. The time when I could try and fit said 4 boxes of Decor into my tiny living room. The time when I could start buying presents without hearing Jack tell me it's too early. The time when I could start playing Christmas music without hearing Jack complain. The time when I could drive home from work and check out the christmas lights of all the little families that live in my neighborhood. The time when I could buy egg nog and hot chocolate. The time when I could watch Christmas movies and snuggle with my hubby while the lights blink on the tree. Ah! Bliss.

Camera Stuff

A few days ago I said goodbye to my camera. It's edges that were being held together by cheap duct tape. The scratches that adorned it's 4 inch circumference. It really was a piece of crap. I hate it. Then I welcomed my new shiny red camera into my home with open arms. I loved it so much from the very begining that I even bought it a handy little camera case. Now it's snuggled nicely into it's home that I call my purse. Ready to snap pictures of smiling faces whenever I call upon it. Of course I can only take two at a time. It's still learning you know. But once I buy it a snazzy memory stick it will be up and working. Now I just have to decide what to take picture of first.