...And I am Alexis Lucille

My name is Alexis Lucille and I am 1.5 year old English Bulldog. I am my Dad's little baby. My Mom always said she is the one who wanted a bulldog and I ended up really liking my daddy. My dad always sings to me "Hey, you looking kinda cute, in that tiger striped one piece girl. I think it is from a stupid song he likes. When my sister and dad play ball in the back yard I just stand behind my sister and try to get her and not the ball. I really like to sleep and when I sleep I snore really loud. When I am not sleeping I chase the kitty and make him mad and I find all of the loud toys in the house and squeak them for my mom. I may look fat but my dad says I am just big boned. If you shake your hips at me I will start to wiggle with you. Last summer I started to find the love of the water like my sister but I don't like it when she is in there cause she splashes too much. I am not sure about this baby thing and mom's belly keeps shaking and moving. My favorite thing in the world is playing tug of war with my sister and pulling her across the floor while giving her carpet burn. I am sure I will warm up to the baby but I hope dad makes sure it is nice to me. I also like car rides, but I don't know why cause my sister is going back and forth over me in the back seat and I am not tall enough to see out the winders. The last fun thing I like to do is go over and see Gertie, my Grandma and Grandpa's bulldog. We wrestle and bull each other around until one of us has to go home. I may be a little smaller but I think I get the best of her, at least that's what my dad tells me.



...and here is one of my one piece tiger stripe outfit.



...and the three stooges together.

My Name Is Mercedes!

Hi, my name is Mercedes Marie Vest. I was born on 9/22/2005 so i am about 4 and half now. I am a Rottweiler and love people. My favorite past times are playing with my ball in the back yard, and playing tug of war with my sister. I was my Mommy's first dog and she spoiled me a lot, it shows! I may look intimidating but at worst I may lick you so much that your skin gets irritated. Ever since mommy got pregnant I could tell something was up and I have been pushing my Dad out of bed so I could lay next to her belly. Little Vest likes to kick me in the middle of the night and I like that too. I have a video on YouTube that shows how much I like to chase little sources of light, like laser pointers. I love to be active. Sometimes when my Mom and Dad don't exercise me enough I even take it upon myself to squeeze under the fence and run around the fields and ponds around our house. I am more than happy to come back on my own but not before Mom gets scared. I don't understand that most people are scared to death of rottweilers and would run away from me instead of helping me. I can't wait for little Vest to get here, i am going to be his/her guard dog. I am going to have to learn to be gentle and not lick the baby too much, but I will be their best friend. My picture is below and as you can see sometimes my Mom puts things on me and takes pictures, don't tell anyone but I like it.

A Man's View and a Little More

Well that was Lora's perspective on the last couple of weeks. Let me give you a guys perspective on this little thing called pregnancy. Trust me, if it was up to the males to ensure our species was continued on it wouldn't happen. I can't believe the stuff these women put up with. I have gained a lot of respect for my wife and I am sure that it will only increase after I watch her birth our child.

I am not sure about the rest of the Dads or soon to be Dads but knowing that you are about to have all of this responsibility and life in your hands can get exciting and stressful at times. I can't wait to hold my child in my hands.

Luckily I have had to learn to been very mechanically inclined, thanks to working on Chrysler products, because there is a lot of stuff to put together with these little ones. Not to mention that cars have special hooks and features just for child safety. I have always just assumed that cars had that stuff, all I cared about was the engine size and how well it went around corners. I have been getting yelled at but I lett the little one feel the Hemi power recently. I am sure there will come a day when some little voice in the back seat will be responsible for at least one ticket and lecture about just because your can do donuts (cookies) doesn't mean you have to0.

One of my co-workers recently had twins, Dayton and Dylan, and has a beautiful little girl named Savannah. We went over and saw everyone on Saturday and we had so much fun. I really enjoyed watching her play with all of her toys and just see how much fun she was to be around. It really got me excited for little Vest to come into the world. Little S (Savannah) is about 17 months old and has bright blue eyes and red hair. Seeing her dance to some country rap and her bringing Lora all of her toys, she was such a little doll. I did notice one problem if I do have a little girl I know she will have me wrapped around her little finger.

Hopefully I have some time soon so that I can update you on the rest of our lives, including the dogs (maybe the cat) and the racing. As Lora said sorry it had been so long since we updated everyone but as you can see we have been busy.

Way too long!

Sorry to all of our loyal readers, I know it's been way too long since we updated the blog, so I'll try to update you all and give you a few pictures to apologize for our absence.

On Feb. 28th we had a baby shower in Ankeny. Thank you to everyone that was able to attend, and those who weren't. Our baby is definitely spoiled already due to all of you! Chris made pulled pork and it was a hit! Everyone loved it, which is good especially since he spent half the night worrying and checking on it! Everyone that I work with also loved it since we had a lot of left overs.

Cake :)

Opening Gifts

Look at how well those fit his hand!

Quilt from Grandma Knepper

Booties from Grandma Vest

In the last couple of weeks we have spent a lot of time getting ready for the baby. On the 7th Chris decided to install the car seat in the Jeep. Turns out, it didn't fit! We couldn't believe it! We were so glad we had put it in early, but I probably should have let Chris put it in about two weeks earlier like he wanted to. Instead we spent the rest of that afternoon at Babies "R" Us picking out a new one :) The base is installed and it fits much better!

The new car seat in one of the new rockers.

This past weekend we finished up buying odds and ends like a new phone for the baby room, batteries for all of the new toys and soothers, and a clock for the baby room. We also picked up the glider for the living room. Chris also did about four loads of wash in just baby things. He couldn't sleep on Saturday night, so he got up, did some wash and started putting things away in the drawers. We finished putting things away on Sunday and have almost everything set up now!

Today we had our 36 week appointment. The heartbeat was around 150 this is what the doctor tells us every time, so we are starting to think he just throws out that number so that we can't try to figure out what we are having due to the wives tale. He did say he thinks the baby is probably around 6 lbs right now. Due to the fact that my feet are swollen to about 4 times the size they used to be and the fact that my blood pressure is slightly elevated, we will have weekly appointments from here on out. He isn't overly concerned about pre-eclampsia because there is no protein in my urine yet, but he wants to keep an eye on it. He also thinks that the baby is head down right now, and showed Chris where the head and butt were (he did caution us that this could change in the next couple weeks).

36 Week picture... If you look close you can see my flip-flops, as I haven't been able to wear my dress shoes since the first part of March!