Lilyana Videos

Lilyana's First Steps

Clap Hands

Gift from Jayme

New Hat

Hi cousin Marley! I just got my new hat and mittens in the mail. Thank you so much. Now I can match my mama.

Love, Lilyana

Lilyana Videos

Lilyana on the move

Lilyana on the move part 2

Lilyana helps put up the christmas tree

This next video is for all of the people that keep saying that we have the happiest baby ever. (shes not always happy)

Unhappy dinner

Lilyana videos (8 months old)

Lilyana is getting better at crawling

Lilyana speaks her mind

Alicia makes Lilyana giggle

Lilyana standing

New Schedule Update

Day one-- Lilyana and I were both ready and walked out the door at 9:05am. I didn't make it very far because I couldn't find my keys anywhere. After pacing around, looking in every room, it came to me ... the night before we went shopping and we took the stroller.. ah ha ... my keys are in the stroller cup holder .... which is in Matt's car... at work. I was able to get ahold of Matt pretty fast and he brought my car keys home to me. What a great husband. Despite all of that I was only 15 minutes late for work.
Work went by pretty quickly, there was always something going on. Everyone on day shift was very welcoming.
Lilyana didn't have such a good day. She had a run in with a rocking chair at daycare. She came home with a small cut and dark purple / pink bruise over her right eye. Matt says she looks like she was in a MMA fight.
Day two -- I was only 5 mins late today, at least I'm getting better. No injuries to report today at daycare. After work today we headed to the YMCA for a brief swim The Y has free admission all this week so we're gonna take advantage and plan on going back on Thursday also.

The things I'll miss

Monday will be my offical first day and 1st shift. 9:30 - 5:30pm. Everyone is asking if I'm excited. I am, I'm very excited to finally have the "normal" life. Get up, go to work, come home, make dinner, go for a walk , go to bed. I guess it's been so long since I've worked a "normal" shift that I'm a little nervous. For one, getting out of the house by 9am get Lilyana to daycare will be a feat in itself. Secondly, I hope I can keep up with the work flow on first's. There's alot more going on, more phone calls and more distractions. and Lastly, our financial state. I'll be taking a pay cut since I will not longer get a shift premium and also daycare cost will triple. It's time to pitch the wallet and enjoy my family.

Although I can't wait to ease into my new lifestyle there will be a few things i'll miss about 2nd shift. For one I'll miss all my friends, yeah, i'll still get to see them but there won't be the quiet time to catch up and have a nice conversation . Second shift is so laid back, it's quiet so I can concentrate on a single project or give a customer my undivded uninterrupted attention. That is nearly impossible on first shift. I'll miss breakfast at Pancake House with Jayme, Roger and his wife Tammy.

I'll miss sleeping in, not having to set the alarm. and I'll miss the sunsets.

Here's two that were just a few days apart.

More videos of Lilyana

Lilyana discovers the mirror

Lilyana plays with Jubie in the yard

Lilyana plays with puffy treat

Session 2 - Outline, texture & shading

This time I was at the shop from 2pm to 6:30 pm. The line drawing took about 1 hour 15 minutes, the tattoo took about 3 hours. Next appoinment December 11 (Color).

Line Drawing


Line Drawing

Video of Sean Peters in work

Note: this tattoo is on Matt, not Alicia, not Lilyana

More Lilyana Videos

Lilyana plays with toy frog

Messy Dinner

Playing with toys

Baby Kisses

Walking (with Dad's help)

Lilyana discovers sand video

Session 1 - Foot

I decided to go back to Sean Peters, this time at the new shop Eclectic Art Tattoo Gallery in downtown Lansing. This session lasted 3 hours & now my foot is a little swollen. The plan for this one is to cover the lower half of my right leg. Next session is November 6 - outline.

Click here for video

More Lilyana Videos

Lilyana discovers toy closet

Lilyana plays with grandfather clock

Lilyana plays with toy phone

Lilyana & Jubie

Lilyana's New Tricks

Lilyana crawls

Lilyana props herself up

Lilyana plays with her toys

Apple Orchard

Wednesday we went to Gull Meadow Apple Orchard. The plan was to take some good family photos. We brought the camera, tripod, lenses and everything. . . everything except the camera battery (forgot it at home, Oops). It was still fun, we picked some apples, drank hot cider, took a wagon ride and picked out a pumpkin. All these pictures we took with our phones. We aslo bought a cheap throw away camera. Hopefully some of those pictures will turn out.

exploring new foods

Foods that Lilyana has tried so far
#1 -rice cereal
#2- Homemade carrot baby food
#3- Homemade white peach baby food
and today she had some of our # 4 -fruit smoothie
I know that last one is a no - no that was alot of different kinds of fruits in the smoothie, but it was so good and healthy i' couldn't resist letting her have some
I'm crossing my fingers for no allergic reactions.
She seems to like everything we give her. She's a little messy I'm learning not to feed her when i'm wearing work cloths. She also blows raspberry's, she epecially likes doing it after a bite of food. hence we get a food shower. She thinks it's funny

6 years

Matt and I celebrated our 6 year anniversay on September 5th. This year it fell on the same day , the Sunday before Labor day. We deceided to stay rather close to home, so we picked to explore Toledo. Why Toledo you ask? Well we've never really been there other than driving through to get to Cedar Point and Matt's been there for a couple concerts and the get his tattoo. A short 45 min drive (that is from the parent's house), we were in the heart of Toledo. The Ottawa River cut the city in half, so we started our day trip with a tour of the S.S. Willis B. Boyer. A coal freighter built in 1911 and sailed until 1980. The freighter main route was from Toledo, OH to Sheboygan WI. I'm not a boat or history buff, but it was still pretty intresting. It's not everyday we get to explore a boat that was built in 1911.




We ate lunch at the famous Tony Packo's Hotdog resturant. Made famous by local Toledoan, actor Jamie Farr, he played on M*A*S*H and mentioned the cafe during seven episodes. I choose not to get a hotdog, I went with stuff cabbage. Boy, that was good, with a side of chicken chili. Yum .....Yummy


The next stop was an art gallery, can you imagine how excited i got when we had to walk through the shop next door to get to the gallery. That shop was a bead store. It's like taking a kid through a candy store. Of course I had to get something. The best part, I already used the beads to make a pair of earrings. Yippey.


Next, Peanut Butter Sundae for Matt, Rasberry Peach smoothie for me, this day is getting better.


A 2 mile walk at the Metro park,(gotta walk off those extra calories.) Saw lots of people walking their dogs, big dogs and little dogs. It sparks the conversation what kinda dog would you want if we got one. Right now matt still likes Pugs. Me not so much, I prefer a cute pound mutt. It's ok cause weren't not in the market for getting a dog. so cute.


Being it a Sunday the other things we considered doing were already closed. That's ok with me cause earlier in the day we got the excited news that April & Erick Schuck had their 2nd child. Joy Sienna was born at 9: 35am. Cool.... Joy was born on our anniversay. Hey since we're in town we went straight from Toeldo to Oakwood hospital to see little Joy. All Matt could say was I can't belive 5 months ago Lilyana was this little. It was so fun visiting with the Schucks in the hospital.

Grandma & Grandpa got to spend all day with Lilyana. Grandpa wrote down everything they did, so we didn't miss a beat. It really was a terrific day the only down side was Patrick had to stay the night in the hospital. But everything seems to have checked out ok. He's home and everyone is happy. Happy 6 years of blissful marriage to us = )

Some videos of Lilyana

Lilyana crawling (sort of)

Lilyana plays with a ball

Dad makes Lilyana laugh

Lilyana crawls some more

what's going on.

here's a recap of the last few weeks.

July 17 - 25 visiting with Matt's family back in Wyandotte, Mich

July 26 Oil leak discovered in Marshall, Mich. Here's the lastest update and photos here: http://response.enbridgeus.com/response/

July 27 work busy with people flying in for the oil spill. over the next few days we had multiple helicopter in and out flying over to view the damage. Jennifer Granholm and Kate Segal both fly over. I saw Jennifer get in\out but she didn't come in the building.

July 25 I was informed at work that they were overpaying me 6cent an hour for the last year and a half and now i have to pay it back. I was NOT a happy camper this day. This totally stinks. !!!!!

July 3o Lilyana is 4 months old. Took the day off work, Rehearsal and Dinner for the wedding i stood up on Saturday.

July 31 April & Steve's Wedding in Marshall, Mi. It was a wonderful wedding and a beautiful day. It was an early wedding and reception so we meet up with some friends at Dark Horse Brewery in Marshall afterwards. It was a very laid back kid friend place, so we didn't have any worries about bringing Lilyana with us.

August 1st My mom is in town for a few days. She went with us up to the Frederick Meijer gardens in Grand Rapids. One of my favorite artists (Dale Chihuly) had an exhibit going on.

Cousins Portrait

We had the cousins photographed, it was no where near pefect but it wasn't horrible either. I may try again on Sunday before the Franklin's leave to go back home.
Here what JCPenny got, take a look:
https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0173113309JCP

Customer Code: Alicia Collins

Day at Beadle Lake

Lilyana's new talents

Lilyana rolls over
She can roll from her back to her tummy, but has a hard time getting onto her back again (she has done it before but usually needs help)

Lilyana Sits with Boppy
She can't sit up all by herself just yet but she does pretty good with the help of the boppy.

Lilyana uses her hands
She is still a little uncoordinated but is starting to use her hands for more things than just something to put in her mouth.

*click links to view videos

Matt's hobby

Many of you knew of Matt's hobby in high school was playing Magic the Gathering. For about 10 years between high school & now he hasn't played very often, but within the last two years playing "Magic" has made a resurgance. This weekend he played in a pre-release tournament. Meaning a new set of card is coming out so they play the tournament with the new set(M11). He paid $30. and got 5 hours of playing time and 6 packs of 15 cards each. He spends hours looking through stacks for cards. He has them all organized but he still has alot.








Lilyana trys to " help" sometimes.

He also won this cool box that holds cards. I am about as intrested in Magic as Matt is intrested in my Scrapbooking but we still support each other in our hobbies. Here is Matt's newest creative venture. He cut the artwork off these cards, matched them up to create a landscrape picture. We had the stripes framed. It actually lots pretty cool.

Rise of the Eldrazi basic land, from the top: Island, Forest, Swamp, Plains, Mountain

Happy Forth of July

Misc. Pictures

This was taken just after she completed her roll from back to belly. What a big girl she's getting to be. Everyone says she's so strong. Look out now.... this moving thing has just begun. I can't believe how soon she got a hang of it.

Lilyana helping Mommy with Laundry