Drea Wood

Category Archives: caleb

Natural Cake Help

Written on 12/15/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, Owen, Taite

Have I mentioned that Taite on Sunday turns 5?

Crazy huh?

We debated throwing a party for him… just because money is tight… and they tend to stress me out. I knew though that Taite would compare Calebs 7th birthday before moving with his… Calebs 7th happen to be a “farewell” party too in ways… it was a week or so before our big move to GA… so it was a big deal. I didnt want Taite to feel left out.

So since its the #5 birthday :) – I figured we’d do it. Even though I am not expecting epicness HAHA… it will be a sweet gathering with some friends for him.

For his party I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to bake a natural cake.

Chocolate preferably.
I was going to make my friend Lis’ Zucchini cupcakes, which our kids love… but Taite has requested “a real cake” :) – meaning a sheet style cake.

So I am posting here in hopes that someone can help post a natural cake recipe they have tried and tasted ;-) – I am hoping to avoid re-bakes here.

It doesn’t have to be with wheat flour, which is what we use for almost everything now… but I would love that it contain sucanat or honey, instead of white sugar.

Thanks everyone! Oh and icing recipes too ;-) – post those! Id love a creammmmyyy fluffy icing.

You all rock!

Doesn’t Taite seem grown helping with Owen?
He is a great big brother to him.

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Bonding with Boards

Written on 12/13/2011 by Dreawood in blogfrog, caleb, Taite

One thing we have always enjoyed with our boys, is a good board game. We of course started with all the traditional“toddler games”- such as matching, candy land and so on. With time however, our boys are growing up & loosing interested in those other games… So we are always on the look for a new family interactive game for them to enjoy.

One of those games happens to be a LEGO game. When I saw these advertised in stores, I immediately thought they’d be lame. Not sure why… I guess maybe because I felt like lego’s should strictly stick to building toys, not gaming…

I can humbling admit how wrong I was to judge it at first glance.

The LEGO game MINOTAURUS is fantastic!

We have enjoyed many games together using this game as an entire family. Both our boys get into the strategy of it. Its fun to watch… and is so much more entertaining than the classic roll of a dice, draw a card style games we were use to.

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Trigger Power :)

Written on 12/10/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, photography, Taite

I finally got some triggers to play with on my camera… using off camera lighting.

I will say this… IT IS UNCOMFORTABLE for me.

It is not something I understand at all fully… but I am willing to learn, play and grow. So heres hoping ;-)
TO play with it, and make sure the trigger worked, I sat my flash near the boys who were playing a board game.

They must of been really into the game because not once did they mentioned the flash :)

You wouldn’t of known it, but this room was not dark when I took this photo ;-)

& I used it in this mirror shot too.

Its different :) – but worth learning. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I spent 8am-4pm doing HELP PORTRAIT – went great! Met some great photographers & had a good time blessing others with great portraits. Hope to post photos from that at a later date ;-)

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Clean = Better Play

Written on 12/09/2011 by Dreawood in caleb, house keeping, Owen, Taite

I have learned… that less is MORE – in so many areas… and one of those areas happens to be TOYS. This week we got a HUGE box (as tall as Caleb) – and filled it with TONS of toys. The boys did not hesitate & I was honestly surprised how many they were willing to part with.

After things were organized I was so happy to see how much better they played. There were able to find what they really wanted… and lay on a bed without something in the way.

It is worth taking the time to do…

So if you haven’t… get a box.

Because Christmas is coming… and its better to do it now than later ;-)

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New Holiday Tradition

Written on 12/08/2011 by Dreawood in blogfrog, caleb, holidays, Owen, Taite

Before my husband and I ever had children, the talk about Christmas has come up. In fact I believe one of our 1st real fights was over Santa. :) To do, or not to do…. why I wanted to and why he didn’t. It was one of those things that for years we just butted heads on…

We avoided the issue for years, until our oldest son Caleb was old enough to understand something was going on ;-) – besides a bunch of gifts under the tree. He would have random people come up to him asking “Soooo what is Santa bringing you?” - so we knew, we had to make a decision.

We ultimately decided not to do the traditional Santa route with our family. While I think its perfectly fun, imaginative and sweet... My husband just had a bad experience with it and really felt led to do things differently. So we have… and so far so good. Our boys know who Santa is, they also know that they are never to SPOIL it for anyone else… We’ve been very up front with them and have expressed how important Santa is for some families & how it is not their place to tell anyone he isn’t real. So far so good :)

Our oldest however, this year told us “I wish Santa was real, so we could put cookies out for him.”- I encouraged him to still do this, if he wanted too. I told him he is more than welcome to have fun and pretend all he wants….

This then led my husband into finding a resource in order to teach our children about the real Saint Nicholas… and where Santa really came from.

So this year, for the 1st time… my husband sat down and read the boys a story all about it… and in the story it talked about one of the things the real Saint Nicolas did… and how the children use to put their shoes out on Saint Nicholas Day… and in the morning they’d find a surprise. This surprise was typically money.

Our boys got to do this & along with it, they were also taught that on Saint Nicholas day they were to do something nice for someone else, but that it had to be a secret… so whoever they did something nice for, couldn’t know they did it.

You would not believe how excited our children were to do this!

It was just a perfect evidence for us that we did the right thing for our family. This will be something we continue for years… until our kids are to old to play along :) – and will add a little bit of magic and imagination to the holidays.

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