Firstly, welcome to the forum, and what a fabulous username! Can't wait to see if you add an avatar.
Secondly, apart from the fact that your brood is a bit larger, I thought you were Sazzle by another name - have a look at the thread she started here:
http://www.eyeonspain.com/Secure/ForumPosts.aspx?thread=1799&dev=FB26&name=What
Seems all the bad press etc. hasn't put people off moving here - there's still plenty of you looking to make the move. Good luck to everyone!
Best plan is always to rent first, so you're going about things the right way. But even so, you really need to narrow down your options a bit - Spain is huge. Catalunya, Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol, somewhere in between, somewhere inland...?
For an idea of rental options on CDS have a look at the Sur in English online classifieds here: http://www.surinenglish.com/marketptl.php For proximity to Malaga airport, you can't really beat Torremolinos (15 minutes max), which is my neck of the woods, so feel free to ask anything you need to know about here. For other areas, CB etc, I'm sure there are plenty of members who can give advice on their area.
Best of luck.