Picture Day

One month ago, we decided to get pictures taken of Abram as well as family pictures. It ended up being quite the ordeal. We were with the photographer for 2 1/2 hours! Abram cried most of the time, and after so long the girls were all over the place. Before we were done, Dan had to leave for work so I had to change the kids clothes and load all the irritable kids into the car. It was quite the sight! I had 3 kids loaded onto our sit n stand stroller, and 2 of them were crying their eyes out. People downtown seemed to be looking at me funny. It seemed like there were no other children in sight! After I got all the kids loaded into the car and was putting the stroller away I realized why I looked so funny- I had an entire granola bar stuck to my skirt! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I felt that all this effort was a bust, and there was no way that the photographer was able to get decent shot, so I was very surprised and excited to see our pictures. The photographer down at Cherished Images sent me these proofs to post for you all to see.

Happy Day!

Anyone who knew our little Lydia would all agree that she could be grumpy. She was often known as "grumpy bear", "Jekyll & Hyde", and "little scowler". We often would laugh at some of the grumpy faces she would pull. All my family was worried about what this little grumpster would do when another little one came along to take away some of her mommy's time.

We were all so pleasantly surprised when this little guy was born.........

This little grumpy bear was all smiles!She can now be found all smiles running around the house saying "Happy Day".
Who would've thought that the key to this little girl's happiness would have been found in a new baby brother?
Now what does little Abe need?

Paige turns 4!

Yesterday Paige turned 4, and what a day. We threw two parties- one for friends and one for family. Her friend party was a princess party (no surprise there), it was definitely interesting since most of the guests were little boys. They didn't seem to mind too much- I tried to make most of the games as neutral as possible.
Then in the evening we had our families over to celebrate. It was a fun and full day. As you can see from this picture, Paige had lots and lots of presents.
A few things about Paige:
She loves to dance and dress up like a princess. Her favorite thing to watch on T. V. is Dora the Explorer, she also loves to watch the Barbie movies, and she loves to have books read to her. She especially enjoys the Junie B. Jones books and will sit through me reading her an entire book. Paige is a sweet little girl. We love you Paige :)

I love this picture of Savannah and Paige.

I just have to post this picture of Lydia with the smallest piggies in the world. She loves me to do her hair and holds perfectly still every morning when I curl it. I thought I'd give piggies a try this morning. When I saw how fine and thin her hair up top was, I worried it might hurt to put it in piggy tails. She was so good, I heard her whisper "ouch" two times and that was it. It took quite a lot of hair product, but I was able to get them to stay in pretty good .

An updated picture of our newest little guy. What a cute boy!

Welcome Little Abe

Our little boy is here! Little Abram Daniel Malan was born on January 8, 2009 at 8:46 am. He was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 inches long. We came home from the hospital on Saturday and are working on adjusting to our new schedule. I'm sure it will take us awhile. Savannah, Paige, and Lydia are all thrilled with their new baby brother. Here are a few pictures of them.

One of his first few pictures.
Savannah was initially a little uncertain about her new little brother, but it didn't take her long to warm up to him.

Paige just kept saying "he's so tiny mom".

We were nervous about this little girl and how she would feel about this new family member, but she has been nothing but thrilled about Abram. She was so funny in the hospital, she kept saying "so cute!". Here she is helping her brother swing.

Over the Holidays

Boy time has really flown this last month! We have been spending it with lots of friends and family- as well as dance performances, piano recitals, and sledding. Here are few pictures to highlight our holiday. Here is the Christmas pictures of my girls in the dresses I made for them- I thought they looked darling.

Savannah at her Christmas recital- She performed perfect, and was not nervous at all. Definitely not a trait she received from her mom.
Savannah & Paige both love to dance. They were able to do a little Christmas performance.

After their own performance they got all dressed up and went on a Daddy-daughter date to a real ballet. They absolutely loved Ballet Idaho's Nutcracker. They loved watching real live ballerinas!

Lydia Christmas morning with her baby doll- practicing for what is coming up :)

Paige with her favorite gift- A hello kitty boom box. Now she gets to play music when she wants as loud as it will go. Isn't she too young for this?

Savannah checking out her favorite gift. Going through two drawers of her new make up box. She let me know it has 37 pieces of make-up. Believe me she has been applying it 2 times a day, and has officially gone through 2 bottles of glitter. She also has been giving her little sister's make-overs. The big box of make-up also came with the eye cover she has on in the picture. She wears it to bed every night. She is definitely a little primadonna. And for the record- she insisted on wearing the summer jammies. It wasn't worth the fight for her to wear something warm in the dead of winter.

This is just a small glimpse of our holiday- we really did a lot more and had a great time with lots of visitors. For those of you who have been watching my baby ticker- It will be disappearing here soon. My doctor has decided to induce me this Wednesday evening. Look for pictures of the newest little Malan baby here next week :)

Picture Book

This last month I have been working (almost daily) on this little picture book for Lydia for Christmas. This was my very first applique project, and truthfully I had no idea how involved it was! I probably should have asked someone with experience for some pointers before I started- but I managed to get through it. It is definitely FAR from perfect- but I'm just glad it is finished. I'm sure anyone who has made one of this books can relate. I'm reasonably certain I will not be making another one of these in the near future, and I hope we can manage to keep track of all the velcro pieces to it. I used Burda pattern 7839 and used only scrap material that I had in my closet. Here are some pictures I took before I sewed the book together.

Beginning to look like Christmas

I can’t believe it is already December! We have been slowly putting up our Christmas decorations. We have only managed to decorate two trees and one small Barbie tree for the girls. That took us 3 days! I guess I'm moving much slower these days. Our nativities and more garland is still waiting- hopefully we’ll get it up soon. Here are a few pictures of the girls helping us decorate the tree.