Thoughts on Resolutions

Why do we make resolutions? It is already day 2 of 2016 - flying bye? I guess it depends on who you ask. The other day Eli snuck out of his pack n play at Grandma and Grandpas and ran down the stairs, ran up to me and said, "Mom, I slept so long!!" Mind you, this was after being up there for 5 minutes... My soon-to-be-brother (in-law) said that if you think about it, after only 2 years of life, 5 minutes probably DOES seem like a long time! Haha! I always say with Eli, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Anyway... why do we make resolutions? Have you already broken some of your resolutions, like to not drink coffee (yeah right!) or run a mile every day? I usually write my resolutions down somewhere and come across them about a year later when I'm writing down my NEW resolutions and realize I maybe made it half way through January before I forgot most of them. Ooops:/

But looking back on the past few years and then looking at my resolutions, I realize that some of my biggest achievements were not written down on December 31st to try to achieve the next year. They were actually things that I had no idea I even wanted or needed.

• 2013 - I wanted to graduate and run a half marathon! FAIL - Instead I got pregnant, welcomed a beautiful baby boy, and JASON graduated.
• 2014 - This year my goal was to graduate(again) and run a marathon- SUCCESS! However, we also bought a house.
• 2015 - I'm sure my goals looked something like - Run a marathon, become super woman, blah blah blah - FAIL/SUCCESS - depends on who you ask... I did get pregnant again and birthed another beautiful baby (this time a girl). I'd say that puts me on a super woman level and labor basically equaled running a marathon (just ask ANY woman that has gone through pregnancy, labor and delivery). BUT we also welcomed a new puppy, became self employed, and I completed real estate school and passed my exams this year!

So what I'm saying is - Becoming a mother in 2013, Buying a house in 2014, becoming a mother again & buying a business/becoming self employed in 2015 were not on my resolutions list at all, but they are by far my all time greatest achievements.

I did make a list for 2016:

1. Get Healthy
2. Be Present and Engaging 
3. Spotlight God in my life and relationships
4. Read 5 books
5. Be Optimistic
6. Love as best I can
7. Grow my Etsy, Shaklee, wedding planning, and help Jason with the gym
8. And of course - drink ATLEAST 1 cup of coffee every day.

How many of those will I succeed at? Not sure, but atleast it gives me something to try to work towards to be the best ME I can be.

Basically my point is, it is great to make goals, but even more important than that is to leave your life and future open to what God's plan is! I never could have dreamt up motherhood, college graduate, wedding planner, home owner, self employed - business owner &&& wife all before I said hello to my 25th birthday, but God is so good and obviously quite the dream supporter<3 Happy 2016 my friends!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2015 Frink Family Highlights

1.   We took a family vacation to Hawaii to visit Cari’s parents and escape the cold – unfortunately Eli took pneumonia along with him, fortunately we had good news that a new baby would be joining us later in the year!

2.    Cari had a busy year planning weddings and wrapped up the year with 7 in the bag – she’s excited for next year’s wedding season.

3.     We celebrated 3 years of marriage by hopping on a plane to San Diego. It was a super fun 48 hours spent on the beach and hanging out with family.

4.  Cari and Eli jumped on ANOTHER plane in June and flew to Georgia to spend a week with her sister – riding horses, running from gnats, and eating peaches.

5.      Our family welcomed a new member in July – Duke, a rambunctious, snuggly, 7 month old yellow lab that is currently teething and experiencing his rebellious teen years all at the same time.

6.    Jason took the jump from the daily grind of working for somebody else and purchased a gym – Anytime Fitness Greeley – and is now self-employed! It has been one of the most exciting and challenging changes this year, but if anybody is up for the challenge, it’s Jason, and there is something to be said for waking up excited to go to work (almost) every day.

7.       Not to be shown up by the last highlight though, we welcomed Evelyn Vyolette Frink only 14 short days after purchasing the gym. She came into this world 4 days past her due date weighing 7 lbs 14 oz and measuring 19 ¾ inches. Our lives have been forever changed by this sweet little girl. Her smile is contagious, and we are wrapped around her finger already.

8.   A few weeks after he welcomed his sister, Eli turned 2!! This has been such an amazing year of change and growth – mentally and physically for him. He is obsessed with all things sports, trains, and dinosaurs (trust me, if you don’t know the name of a dino, HE DOES!). He attended his first hockey game this fall and has decided he will be a hockey player when he grows up.

9.      We have been involved in our church quite a bit this year through the usher team, city groups, and the events team. We have been blessed with so many more friends through Mill City Church than we could have ever imagined.

10.  As we continue to watch our country and world struggle along through many hardships, we are so thankful that we have the ultimate hope – that God sent His Son to love us and to teach us to love others. Things of this world are not eternal, the only thing eternal is His truth, and we take so much joy in knowing that this is temporary. During this temporary time, we will enjoy the many blessings we have been given. Merry Christmas and praying your new year is filled with revelations of God’s goodness. 

Mommy Mary

Something I had never really thought of prior to having children was Mary, ya know - Jesus' mother. You hear about her getting pregnant and giving birth to Jesus, but after that, we don't hear much. Now that I have started going through the craziness of motherhood I can't help but have SO many questions. The same goes for Jesus - we hear about his birth, and then after that, not much untill he is quite a bit older. We know that he was human, so I will let my questions flow, and my fellow mothers can wonder with me.

Was he bad when it came to teething?
Did he get sick alot when he was a kid?
Did he go through terrible twos?
Did he potty train early or late?
When did he learn to walk and crawl and sit?
Did he talk back to his mother?
OR was he the perfect child - no talking back, no acting out, no teething tears, potty trained from birth....

Isn't it strange to think that Jesus was a little baby boy that nursed and spit up and probably talked back? Can you imagine going through your pregnancy and raising a baby that you KNEW was going to change the world? We all dream about what our children will be, and how they will be world changers, but He was THE world changer.

"Mary did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod."
"When you kiss your little baby - you kiss the face of God."

How powerful and humbling is that? I mean I could kiss my babies for days.. their soft little cheeks that are just begging for smooches. I'm sure Mary felt that same way about Jesus.

These are all just my random thoughts that I can't help but consider as we come up to Christmas and celebrate the birth of our savior. I can't help but think that Mary went through a painful labor in a BARN (WHAT?!?!?!) and gave birth to a baby (how much did he weigh? how long was he?) and raised this man that would change the world. I know that my children are not called to be Jesus, but they are called to be LIKE Jesus. It is my job to walk with them through these challenges and teach them to be Christ-like. What an incredible calling we have as parents.

Welcome Evelyn Vyolette - Birth Story

She finally arrived! We welcomed our beautiful Evelyn Vyolette Frink on October 14th just 4 days after her "due date."

As we got closer and closer to our due date we kept thinking she could come any day, but then October 10th came and went just as my due date did with Eli. Unfortunately we were on a bit of a timeline with our newest business venture and we really wanted Jason to at least have a few days at home with our newest family member. After 4 membrane sweeps, castor oil, and all those other natural induction ideas, we decided things weren't going to get rolling on their own during our small window of time. They put us on the schedule to go in for induction on Monday night at 7:30. I got bumped from that slot and moved to 6am on tuesday.. once again I got bumped and was told to call back at 11. You guessed it.. I got bumped again and was told to call back at 3. Busy day on the birthing floor apparently! FINALLY when I called at 3, they told me to go ahead and head in. YAY! We were finally going to have a baby!!

What a different experience than my first time running into the hospital in labor. This time we calmly and excitedly loaded our things into the car, checked into the hospital, and got hooked up to the iv. My midwife showed up at 5:30 and checked me and said I was already at 3cm and 75% effaced (apparently those braxton hicks were actually doing something for the past 2 months!), so it was a good start, but she still wanted to start me out on pitocin. After 3 hours on pitocin my body wasn't responding. They like to see 4 contractions in a frame and according to the monitors I was having 6. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling them and they didn't want me to have more than that many contractions in such a short time. My midwife checked me at 8:30 and I was at 4cm. Obviously not doing what we wanted it to do. SO we decided it was time to break my water. I hopped in the tub assuming that brutal contractions would start quickly, and they did! Within 10 minutes of breaking my water I was having some INTENSE contractions! 10 minutes later I crawled out of the tub and told Jason I was done with this..."I am going to enjoy this labor, get me an epidural!" He went out to inform the nurse of my wishes and she said something I DID NOT expect to hear - "If she's asking for the epidural that probably means she's ready to push! I'll grab the midwife and we'll check her." No way, there is no way... I had been having contractions for 20 minutes (HORRIBLE contractions, don't get my wrong... but that was impossible). I dryed off, crawled into the bed, and got the news...

"You are at a 9!!! We're about ready to have a baby!!" I was shocked to say the least. The nurses and midwives hustled to get ready for baby and I started begging to push. Finally they gave me a thumbs up and after 20 minutes of pushing, our sweet baby girl came into the world at 9:42pm. What an absolute miracle. I am still in awe at what our bodies have been designed to do by our creator. Second time around is no less mind blowing, amazing, and just INCREDIBLE than the first time. To carry a baby for 9+ months and at one minute they are wiggling in your tummy and the next they are crying in your arms is a miracle that can not be described.

Little Evelyn Vyolette Frink weighed in at 7lbs 14oz and measured 19 3/4" in length. She has been the sweetest little girl from the time we layed eyes on her. All of us have completely fallen in love and can't imagine life without her. Eli is smitten and begs to kiss her and hold her ALL day long.

And I'm not nearly as outnumbered as I was before (Jason, Eli, Koa & Duke), so I'm cool with that!

My Favorite "Happily Ever After"...

I just completed my 7th wedding this year. I coordinated 4 on my own, and assisted in 3. Every single wedding is so different from the last and they all have their unique aspects. Everybody has their own idea of the perfect "Big Day" and it is so fun to see those little girl dreams play out into their wedding days.

However, I must say my favorite to this day is still MY own wedding.

I did not have a coordinator, I did not have little girl dreams that played out in real life, I did not have it all planned out to a T like you think I should. Instead my wedding was a BEAUTIFUL mess.

A little bit of a timeline - Jason and I were both in school at CSU and wrapping up yet another semester of classes and finals. We both got all of our finals moved around, so we were able to wrap those up Thursday evening, and fly out to Hawaii bright and early Friday morning. Yes, you did read that right... we tied the knot in Hawaii:) Destination wedding? Kind of but not really. For years I lived in Hawaii from December to May because my parents are snow birds, so it wasn't like we packed up, flew to a resort that had everything planned, and got married. We got to my parents place Friday afternoon and spent the weekend getting ready and making runs to the airport for more family. We had never met the pastor before the wedding day, but he turned out to be absolutely perfect for what we were wanting. Awesome how God orchestrates his plans like that. We rented a tent, tables, chairs, tableware, etc from a place in town and pretty much just winged it all.

My wedding day pretty much went down like this - got my hair done, picked up flowers which were an hour late being ready, grabbed my dress from the dry cleaners on the way home, and rushed home to get ready. THEN once I was already in my dress I put centerpieces on the tables, did my sister and best friend's hair (bridesmaids), and we all loaded up into cars. Now, I should put a little side note here: we got married in a private beach. While I can see everybody's jaw dropping at "how awesome" that must have been.... it took some serious work. The men all went down to the beach and cleaned rocks up, set up chairs and an arch, and got the sound all set up (a CD player run on electricity from my Aunt's car). Because Hawaii is a lava flow, the trip to the beach involved bouncing around in 4wheel drive cars for about 20 minutes for all of the guests. They were troopers, let me tell you.

The ceremony was perfection. It was as beautiful as they come in my mind.. We had about 35 people there and we tied the knot around 5:30 pm on May 14th with waves crashing in the background. Scratch that - it was probably about 30 minutes later because that is just how it goes when you don't have a coordinator and have a long bumpy drive to the beach.

Afterwards we took pictures and everybody loaded back into the cars and we all headed up to my parent's house for the reception. The reception was BEAUTIFUL too! My awesome family cooked all the food, and we enjoyed a traditional hawaiian dinner followed by lilikoi cake, and Hurricanes. Dancing followed on the porch with the music coming from an ipod playlist I threw together during cocktail hour. Finally, we hugged our favorite people and headed off to our honeymoon.

The timeline went from everything being done around 9 to us finally heading out around 10:30. We almost missed our flight to Kauai the next morning because it left at 10, not 12... I put out centerpieces in my wedding dress, everything was late, half the people saw me in my dress before Jason did, and nobody danced at the reception.

We got married in Hawaii... on the beach... in the perfect dress and a linen shirt, khaki pants, and flip flops. We celebrated with our two families, ate amazing food, got awesome pictures, and loved every second of it. AND ultimately we married the person that God had put on this earth for us. This was and is by far my favorite "Happily Ever After." There may be a few things I would have changed, but in the end I tell my brides - your guests will remember the food, you will remember the pictures and who you married... so think about what REALLY matters.

Elijah Moments

Life is flying bye at the speed of light. It feels like yesterday we celebrated Eli's first birthday, and here we are a little less than 2 months out from his SECOND birthday. It has been such a fun adventure. But I feel like I will never be able to remember all the little moments with him and that scares me. Every day is a new phrase that he has picked up, every animal is a new sound to learn, and every sound is another question.

Some phrases I don't ever want to forget:
"What's dat?" - literally EVERYTHING... sometimes he even asks me when he already knows the answer. I'm pretty sure he's testing me to make sure I know what it is.
"Where'd ______ go?" - EVERY time something is not where he remembered it being, or somebody had to leave..
"What happened?" - EVERY time he hears or sees something that is out of the norm..

Today at lunch I gave him his favorite - a cheese quesadilla - but added refried pinto beans into it. After I set it on the table he looked it up and down and asked, "What's dat?" I told him it was his favorite, a cheese quesadilla. He responded with, "No, that's PEANUT BUTTER!!!"  The horror.. to think I had added peanut butter to his precious cheese quesadilla and was trying to pull a fast one on him. My stomach hurt from laughing so much. He eventually tasted it and decided it was in fact beans, and not peanut butter.

A few weeks ago we went through a phase where he insisted on calling his Daddy, Jason. Every time he was doing something with Jason, or asking where he was, he referred to him as Jason. Quite a few evening football or baseball sessions went something like this - "Nice throw Jason!" "Nice, Jason!" "Nice catch, Jason!"

He will be a wonderful oldest sibling. He constantly tries to control any and all situations. When we are at the park I constantly have to remind him that other children don't have to listen to him, only their parents. When he hears a parent tell their child to get off the playground, or stop climbing up a slide, he takes it upon himself to make sure they heard their parents - "Get off! Get down, right now."

He is a very imaginative little guy. Lately he has been having all sorts of conversations with his animals that are laying around the house. Offering his zebra water, or his huge rubber ducky a sandwich is only the tip of the iceberg. He also tells his tractors to be nice to each other, and tells his giraffe - "No, that's Eli's quesadilla. Don't eat Eli's quesadilla."

Riding 4-Wheelers with Grandma is serious stuff!

Reading books and singing songs are favorite pass times of his. He likes to grab a few books so he has options. Then, he pulls them up on the couch and says, "Mom, read a book... how 'bout Tiger book, no? How 'bout ABC's Book, No? No like ABCs book?" and on and on until we find a book that I he thinks I would like to read to him. Songs go about the same way... "Let's sing Row Row Row Boat (just as I start to sing) NO, how 'bout Twinkle Tinkle, NO... how 'bout Jesus Loves me!"

I'm constantly amazed by how smart and aware he is of everything. If you let him, he can sing all the way through the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and a few verses of The Wheels On The Bus (his favorite being the shhh shhh shhh verse). He knows his favorite books cover to cover - one of them - Barnyard Dance (Cockadoodoo Book) has a cow standing on a table about half way through the story, and EVERY time we read it he yells, "Bad Cow!!! Get off table, cow!" He never hesitates to point out a motorcycle, train, bus, truck, tractor, balloons, or water that we might happen to drive by on the road. He is obsessed with stickers and coloring right now, and could do them for an hour if I let him - however he did get carried away when I wasn't looking the other day, and colored blue highlighter all over the rocking chair..? Ooops! Good thing the cushion flips over!

Eli is so excited to meet is baby sister, I can only hope the love and excitement carries on once she has arrived. He loves to blow raspberries on her (my tummy), give her hugs, kisses, and snuggles. And every now and then he will even sing to her.

Three Generations <3

I could go on for days about how much this sweet boy has stolen our hearts and makes us laugh till we cry, but I'll leave it at that for now. We are so looking forward to the next many many years with him bringing laughter and joy into our home, but for now, I want to remember each little sweet moment. They seem to be slipping bye too quickly right now.

A piece of pie..

Well, I said that next up would be apple pie, so I did hold true to that.. I failed however on completing this one last week. My week went from a low rumble to a rip roaring river as far as craziness is concerned. We enjoyed having my mother in law here for the weekend, and then my Mom was here Tuesday-Friday. I did something crazy and decided it was time to knock out my Real Estate Broker Exams, so I signed up to do those on Wednesday. I had heard that they were hard, and I had spent the past 5 months studying to pass them - well, long story short, I DID PASS THEM. The national exam was a close call, but the state exam I passed with flying colors. What a relief - there are no words for the weight that was lifted from my shoulders when I saw the 'PASS' for my score. Then, as if that wasn't enough, my Mom and I painted Ev's room, finished painting Eli's room, and tackled the mess that was left from Eli's younger days - so may clothes all thrown into random boxes and bags. I will take notes from second time around with Ev and sort clothes as we grow out of them, not when I am preparing for the NEXT baby. Yes, I did say next... we do want more than two;)

Anyway, we spent the weekend doing some much more relaxing things like the Farmer's Market for peaches, I got a $8.50 pedicure (winning!), went to a little concert at a local park, AND then I got bit by a spider on my lip and went to the hospital to deal with that... But when all was said and done, it was a pretty great weekend with my two men. I'm starting to realize that we are down to the final weeks of it just being the three of us, and that is a little bitter sweet at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond thrilled to be having our sweet girl join us so soon, but as we go through each different stage of life, I struggle to leave behind the ones we were just in.. It feels like yesterday I was marrying Jason, then what seemed like a few days later we were bring home sweet Eli, and now we are preparing for Ev. Life is so full of adventures and I wouldn't have it any other way.

But with the new week came a much needed break from the grind stone, so Eli and I made an apple pie and had some friends over. "How To Make an Apple Pie" was one of my favorite books growing up. It is a story about a girl who decides to make an apple pie, so she heads to the market to grab a few ingredients.. Well, turns out the market is closed, so what better decision than to travel the world collecting her ingredients - Italy for wheat, Sri Lanka for cinnamon, Vermont for apples, etc etc... Maybe that book is what triggered my love for food and traveling (and the combination of them both? perfection!!). Eli may or may not have eaten a few handfuls of cinnamon and sugar covered apples, but he was by far the most fun to cook with. He insisted on dumping every cup and teaspoon of ingredients into the bowl.

Disclaimer: I haven't baked a pie in years... I'm not huge into baking actually... It is too time consuming and requires some major patience. I probably opened the oven 5 times to see if it was going to be ready early. So it didn't look like your grandmother's perfect apple pie, but let me tell you... it tasted AMAZING. And having some friends over for coffee and apple pie on a Monday morning sure didn't hurt at all either.

Check back next week for our next cooking adventure! Looks like it's time to head back to the library for our next book:)