Thankful Thursday:

Unbelievable how this year went by so fast. So much has

happened in our family this year..much trials, tribulations,

a separation and many a lesson learned. 

Trying to keep my family sane and happy this year has

 been the hardest for me and there were moments I wasn't

 sure if Heavenly Father was listening to my prayers. But I 

knew in my heart that Heavenly Father wouldn't give us 

trials that we couldn't handle and kept strong with that in

mind. 

I've learned this year to be a stronger person, have more

patience with my children as they're going through a rough

patch as well and being more optimistic about what the 

new year will bring us. 

2 days ago we we're on the verge of being homeless. We

had been waiting on a check from a client to pay our rent 

and were told that it would take about 2-3 weeks for us to

receive this payment. This was the only job we had for the

month and knew that the kids wouldn't get anything for Xmas.

We sat down with the kids and explained to them what

has happened and our 7 year said that he understands and

that he'd rather have a place to stay than be cold on the 

streets. We only had until the 28th to have a payment in of 

$1,398.67 this is plus court and legal fees to the office by 

5 pm. I had exhausted all resources trying to find help until

we could get that check in and repay whoever was going 

to help us. 3:20 pm a friend that we had done work for in

November then agreed to help us out. I couldn't be more 

thankful to Aaron and his wife for helping us that day. Our

family is indebted to him for his kindness and generosity. 

I'm thankful that today I'm able to write you all from a 

warm room with a roof over my head and Father full of 

grace and mercy who has blessed us with much to be 

thankful for. 

I look forward to 2011 and all that it holds for us and I

 hope that it brings you all more love, joy, happiness and

much abundance than you can receive. It's been an honor

to know each and every one of you. 

To read more Thankful Thursday stories, head over to
Grace Alone and link up there. Thanks, Alicia for the link!

God Bless:)

A Favor for A Friend...

Lately I haven't been up to much. A good friend asked

me a couple of weeks ago if I could use my camera to 

take a picture of her mom and son for some Christmas

eCards. So I agreed. I haven't had the chance to actually

go out and photograph people so I was pretty nervous. 

Her mom brought 3 sets of change and we set out to 

look for a place to take their pictures. We didn't get far

when they decided to take pictures in our area and the 

park in the back. Thank goodness it was sunny that 

Saturday afternoon. I was hoping that the rain and cloudy

skies wouldn't ruin our fun. Though it was really windy

and cold that day. Our pictures turned out ok. I did learn

alot that day about what I could've done better. So I 

asked her if she'd like to try it again on another sunny 

day and she happily agreed. Here's a couple of shots 

from that day. We ended up with 200 or more shots 

and it was really hard to pick what was good to post

and what wasn't. This was a chance for me to use 

my Adobe Lightroom 3 program that I hadn't used 

yet. What do you think? 

This was taken in the parking lot of our church in

front of a light post. She was still fixing his collar 

and I thought it was a perfect moment.

Grandma Lita and Kimball Jr. 

My friend Aviance and her son,Polo leka (nick name)

New York Style Crumb Cake

New York Style Crumb Cake 

Bon Appetit- April 2010 issue

12 servings This is our Christmas morning

treat with a hot cup of cocoa! It's a moist 

and tender sour cream coffee cake with a 

thick topping of cinnamon streusel. Enjoy.

topping

1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

11/2 tblsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted,

and warm

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 

cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda 

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter,

room temperature. If using salted butter

omit the salt. 

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/3 cups sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping Mix: Mix both sugars, cinnamon and

salt in medium bowl and whisk to blend. Add 

warm melted butter and stir to blend. Add flour

and toss with fork until moist clumps form 

(topping mixture will look slightly wet). 

Set aside. 

Cake: Position rack in center of oven and 

preheat to 350 F. Butter 13x9x2 inch glass 

baking dish. ( I used a 9 inch cake pan and 

dished out the rest into small cake bowls 

for individual crumb cakes) Sift flour, baking

soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium

bowl. Using electric mixer, beat room temp

erature butter in large bowl until smooth. Add

sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs

1 at a time, beating until well blended after 

each addition. Add sour cream and vanilla 

extract and beat just until blended. Add flour

mixture in 3 addition, beating just until incor

porated after each addition. Transfer cake 

batter to prepared baking dish, spread batter

evenly with rubber spatula or offset spatula. 

Squeeze small handfuls of topping together

to form small clumps. Drop topping clumps 

evenly over cake batter, covering completely

(topping will be thick, I just kept our topping 

thin for our cake). Bake cake until tester 

inserted into center comes out clean and the

topping is deep golden brown and slightly 

crisp, about 1 hour. Cool cake in dish on rack

at least 30 min. Do Ahead Can be made 1 day

ahead. Cool completely. Cover and let stand 

at room temperature. Cut cake into squares

and serve slightly warm or at room temperat

ure. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas friends and family, it's been quite a year! 

I'm glad to have made many bloggy friends this year and  

have gotten to know most of you through shared experiences.

I hope that today brings you and your family much joy, peace

and many blessings!