Easter

We had a very busy and eventful Easter. Saturday was filled with egg coloring, egg hunts, and time with family. Sunday was filled with more egg hunts and a lot more time with lots of family and friends (my family and Dan's family). We started the morning out with Easter baskets, then we went to Dan's parents house. We went to church with his parents where my sister and brother in-law (Anne & Brian) blessed their new baby Sophia. Then we went back to his parents house where we had a large lunch with lots of family and friends. After that we went to my parents for a large dinner and another egg hunt with my family. Oh how I love living near so many family members, it made for a very special easter.

These are few of my favorite egg hunt pictures.

Savannah & Paige showing their Easter Eggs.

The single egg that Lydia colored.

Here are a few pictures we took before going to church. We were unable to get a good picture of all of us and it was even harder when we tried to get one of the kids alone. Oh well.

The Malan group after little Sophie was blessed.

A Green Tux

After I finished my little girls easter dresses I thought well I've got to do something for my boy. So this is what I came up with....
I laugh when I look at it because it is quite fancy, but it has to be to go with his sisters dresses. They might look like they are going to be in a wedding, but hey how long are they going to let me dress them like this or want to wear stuff like this anyway? I still might just leave the bow tie at home on Sunday. I used Burda pattern #9732 and the sage satin fabric from the girls dresses. The white shirt I got at Old Navy for $5- what a bargain!

Here he is, what a cute boy. I can't wait to take a picture of the kids all together in their Easter outfits.

Mystery Solved!

I have always thought Lydia looked the most like a Dana.... until today that is. I received an e-mail from Dan's cousin with a picture of his Grandma Alta Byrne Malan. She is the little one sitting on her mom's lap.

I saw this and I thought wow I've definitely seen this look before.

Yes, I definitely think she resembles little Alta Byrne Malan. And for the record when Dan
showed her the old picture of his grandma and asked her who it was she responded "Lydie".

Easter dresses

It has taken me about a month, but I have finally finished the girls' Easter dresses. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I went with making them more dressy since I could only get the girls to wear their Christmas dresses to church one time because they did not think they were not"fancy" enough. I figure they will probably only want dresses like these for a few more years so... fancy it is. I used Butterick pattern #3350 - I modified the neckline and added an overskirt and slip ruffle. The fabric is from Joann's Casa collection. It is a sage greenish satin with a sparkle organza.

Here are the girls in their dresses.

Pretty in Pink

Okay so we knew it would be a matter of time before the girls would want to do something "girly" to little Abe, however, we did not realize it would be this soon. When I was doing the dishes the other day Savannah said, "Mom, look Abe has a ring on like yours"

This is the ring she is referring to. One of Dan's patients (a jeweler) had made it for me. While Abe's ring is definitely fabulous- I believe I still prefer my own.

Poor little Abe! How will he ever tolerate living in a home full of girls. What will they do next?

Feeling Better

Ever since our Happy Day post I thought I had jinxed Lydia's good behavior. She started crying every day- I just didn't know what to do so I took her to the doctor who reassured me there was absolutely nothing wrong. A few days after going to the doctor Lydia started to throw up about 1 time a day with no other symptoms. I didn't worry about dehydration too much since she was still eating and drinking, however after about 5 days she was not looking too good and ended up being admitted to the hospital with dehydration. We thought it would be an overnight admission and after she was rehydrated we'd be home. However she would not eat and drink and continued to throw up. After 4 days/3 long nights in the hospital and several negative and painful tests the doctors concluded it was just a virus and we were able to come home. Now we are home and have had some up and down days but things are definitely on the upswing.

At this same time, Savannah and Paige have also started to throw up 1 time every few days (weird) but seem to be doing fine otherwise. After 3 weeks of cleaning up throw up, we're hoping the worst is behind us.

Fabrics Galore

I just went on a fabric shopping spree, and this was the end result......

What could have possessed me to purchase 20+ bolts of fabric? 95% off at Joann fabrics! That's right. Our Joann fabrics just opened a superstore and was closing 2 local stores. I went in yesterday morning to see what was left in their liquidation sale. As I walked through the door the manager said all fabric was 95% off, but you had to take everything on the bolt. I went a little crazy. The fabric left was mostly for making clothing, so I got all kinds of dress material (too bad I already bought the material for the kids easter dresses), knits, corduroy, linens, etc. It's a good thing I had my 3 little ones with me or I would have bought even more. It looks like I spent a fortune on fabric, however this load only ran me $50. I think I'm good for the next 2 years. Oh, and not pictured is about 30 + yards of Tulle (at 7 cents a yard I couldn't resist), gobs of buttons, and about 7 spools of Ribbon all at 95% off. It was a lot of fun to get such amazing buys, now.....Where to store it?