Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got a chance to spend time with family and friends.

Kristi and I had a great day. We spent Christmas morning opening presents with the Arc's who are in town. Santa was good to us this holiday. Kristi and I originally had a pact that we were not going to do Christmas gifts this year. That quickly turned into a 2 gift limit and then spread into an unlimited shopping spree. Kristi got a new purse, a gift certificate for a massage and some other odds and ends. I got sweaters, a blue tooth and a gift certificate for Starbucks. Sam also made out well this year. The Arc's provided lots of toys and even gave us some dinner certificates and a weekend of babysitting. Those gifts will come in handy right around spring time. Even Bailey got to take part in the fun...we hid dog treats wrapped under the tree. She was the first to "open" a present which was not the smartest idea. After the first gift, she thought every gift was for her and had a bone in it. Lesson learned for next time...we'll give her a bone in the kitchen and go back to opening presents.

The rest of the day was spent watching lots of Christmas movies (Its a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and Christmas Vacation to name a few) and relaxing. It felt really nice to sit back and do a lot of nothing this holiday. I'm trying to bank all of my free time in anticipation of a lot of hectic sleep patterns and not much time to spend doing all of the things that i used to do.

We finished up the evening with dessert over at our friends, Lynn and Mark's house. They are great friends and we had a great time hanging out with them and their family.

Christmas went by really fast this year and actually snuck up on us. We've been so focused on Sam coming that we started to forget the days as they have passed by.

Below are some pictures that we took on Christmas day.




Well...we are down to 5 more days until Sam arrives. Just a few tasks left on my "honey do" list: put together the swing, attach the changing pad to Sam's dresser and tighten the car seat. I'm sure I'll be able to get them done this weekend. I'll go back to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to wrap things up, while Kristi will stay relaxed and keep her feet up, and then we'll get up bright and early on Thursday morning to go to the hospital. We are supposed to be at the hospital for 5:15 in the morning. There are 2 hrs of prep, of which some time is carved out for me to scrub in, and then Sam will be here at 7:15AM. After that...I'm not sure what happens next, although I expect controlled chaos, followed by lots of excitement. I know both Kristi and I can't wait for Sam to get here! Personally, I know that I can't wait to hold her and give her a big kiss.

Talk to you after Sam gets here...

The Final Countdown...

We are down to 8 days until Sam is scheduled to arrive. We went to the doctors yesterday for our normal check up and he didn't have any concerns. He still plans to see us next Thursday at 7:15AM. If it were up to Kristi, she would prefer to have Sam come today. She is getting pretty uncomfortable and retaining lots of water these days. It's a good thing that the holidays are here...not only is it a good time to celebrate, but it will force us all to kick back and relax a little more. I've got a book that I have to finish reading before Sam's arrival, so that will be my focus.

Kristi's parents arrived today and will spend Christmas, New Years and a couple of weeks with us after Sam arrives. It should be a lot of quality time together, but we know that they will be a huge help as we get ready to jump into parenthood.

I think we're all ready for Sam's arrival. Her bedroom is painted, decorated and all the furniture is moved in. Below is a short video i took last month as Kristi and I were finishing putting together Sam's bedding. I had never used the video feature on our new camera. I thought it had good quality and good sound. This will be a bonus feature for all you blog followers who like pictures AND video.

We also got the car seat installed in Kristi's car, the pack and play is set up down stairs and we even have a stroller (although I'm not sure if we'll be able to take Sam for walks any time soon with the cold weather). We have been very fortunate to get so many gifts from our family, friends and Kristi's clients. Thank you all for your generosity and thoughts.

The only thing left that we have to do is to finish packing our bags for the hospital. We'll have 4 or 5 nights to spend there so we need to make sure that we have all of our clothes AND toys. Hospitals are pretty hi-tech these days. They have WIFI so i can surf the world wide web and post pictures. I'm hoping that there might be some down time. Most say that i will look forward to sleep, but I'm not sure of how much sleep i will get on my little bench and half inch thick mattress.

We are also trying to spoil Bailey as much as we can. Everyone says that Bailey will take a "backseat" in our priorities when we bring Sam home. That may be the case some days, but I sure hope that we can still have some good quality time hanging out and going for walks. Sunday was her 10th birthday. I went to Petsmart and bought her some new treats. I also gave her a bath (although she would say that is torture and not a present). After her bath, she was really cold and shivering so we wrapped her up, where she stayed for most of the night.

So...only 2 more days until Christmas. We hope that everyone has been good this year and gets everything that they wanted. 2009 has been a great year for us. We are so thankful that we have a house to live in, great jobs, great families that we got to see this many times this year, and most of all...a healthy Sam!

While we will be at home and staying local this year, we will be thinking of everyone and wishing that we could be there to open presents and eat lots of food. Merry Christmas!

Love...Nick & Kristi

We Created a Blog!

Well...we did it...we created a blog. With the upcoming birth of Samantha, we wanted to create a centralized location for our family and friends to keep track of us and all of our doings. We bought a new camera that can take great pictures and even short videos, so we'll be sure to post lots of pics.

We've labeled our blog...Kids Having Kids. It's hard to believe that we now have to "grow up" and become responsible adults. I know that I (Nick), personally, still enjoy watching cartoons and sitting around in my pajamas all day on Sundays...i have a feeling that all that is about to change. A lot of friends have commented that you never really have to grow up...you just have to adjust your lifestyle. Either way...we are ready and couldn't be happier or more excited for Samantha to come.

A lot has happened over the last 38 weeks. Kristi has had a pretty good pregnancy with little discomfort...up to week 34 or 35. Ever since Thanksgiving, Samantha has gotten a lot bigger and Kristi is starting to swell up (not just in her belly, but her ankles, hands, etc). She's a trooper and is spending more time on the couch with her feet up. I think she's starting to realize that she can't keep going at the same pace that she did before she was pregnant.

I've attached a picture of Samantha. This was taken at 18 weeks, when we found out we were having a girl. We've known that we were going to call her Samantha for quite a long time (even before we knew that we were having a girl). See, Kristi likes names that you can either shorten or make nicknames out of. Over the last few months, we have come up with many nicknames including: Sam, Sammy McSam and Kicky McKicks. I think we will end up calling her Sam most of the time. Her official name will be: Samantha Morgan Estes

For those of you that don't know or don't remember...Sam will be delivered via a scheduled c-section. We are scheduled for 7:15AM on New Year's Eve (tax deduction!!!). The doctor's don't think that she will come before then, but we'll know more when we go again on Tuesday (12/22).

More to come...