Welcome, Wade Christopher!

Wade Christopher entered this world at 9:38 a.m. on February 8th.  His timing was off slightly since it was one day later than his Aunt Beth's birthday and a little over an hour earlier than his great grandma's arrival at the hospital.  Although I'm a little broken-hearted to have missed his birth, I'm grateful beyond words that everything else about him and his arrival was perfect. 

At slightly under 39 weeks, he weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, was 21 1/4 inches long, and, as you can see from the picture, every single thing about him was perfect.  Unfortunately, since we were late getting there, the first pictures we got of him looked like this.

  
He was already in the nursery for evaluation and a bath.  I used my zoom lens to get the best shots I could.

 

It was a relief when they finally moved him close to the window so we could not only see him but get better pictures.

 

 Finally he came back home to his mom's room and we got to be there as he got re-acquainted with her.

his proud daddy,

And his grandma.

And he finally met his great grandpa and great grandma for the first time.

 He wasn't phased at all by all these greetings.  

Just chilled and posed for as long as we wanted.

 

 

 

Then it was time for some pictures with Mom and Dad and you could see that he was right where he wanted to be.

 

 And right where they wanted him to be.

Finally it was time for Aunt Beth, his official photographer to head back to Indiana.  But she leaned in for one last look.

And then Grandma got up close with her daughter and brand new grandbaby.

 

Then, while Wade was finally relaxing on his own, some more very important visitors arrived.

 First came big brothers, Jack and Dane.

 Then big sister, Aubrey.

 Aubrey wasn't exactly sure what to think about this interloper.

But big brother, Jack, did what he could to help her relax and make everybody comfortable.

 Eventually Jack could come in for a closer look on his own.

 And a chance to hold him.

Then it was Dane's turn.

 

And finally the brand new foursome posed for their first group shot.

And I have to say it just doesn't get any better than this.  Chris and Amber made a decision to have a large family and to have their children close together and they've done exactly that.

I believe their family will turn out just like ours - with some challenges but mostly joy beyond measure.  Congratulations, kids!  We couldn't be prouder of you.