Warren.

Back in October I got to go with this handsome fella...



...to see this brilliant man perform live




Warren Haynes (of the Allman Brothers) came to The Depot in SLC; which is now officially my favorite venue in Salt Lake. It has a very intimate atmosphere and the sound/acoustics are amazing because you're not in a gigantic arena. We showed up a couple of hours early because the tickets were general admission, but it was WELL WORTH IT, to end up smack dab at Warren's feet. The concert was delayed about an hour and half because the band's flight was delayed, but Warren came out before his band got there to play some solo acoustic stuff for the crowd. He is such an intense and sincere performer that he puts on a great show even without a band. Overall the show was beyond amazing.


During the show Warren would throw a pick out into the crowd after he had played with it and I got one of them, and Matt was given Warren Haynes' set list during the intermission. After the concert we were like giddy school girls walking out of the venue with our memorabilia, when all of the sudden we spot Warren with a small group of people around him! We went straight up to him got an autograph, exchanged a few words and shook his hand. I couldn't believe that after a long night of performing he STILL came out to sign autographs. He was a very humble and gracious southern man. Matt and I were pretty smitten lol.




In other news my little (sister) Lilly turned 6! Holy cow that went by fast. I still remember getting a call from my mom while I was away at Utah State, telling me that she was going into labor and for me to come home as soon as I possibly could after my finals. Lilly and I have such a special little bond and I am so grateful for that. She's my little buddy:)


We celebrated her birthday with my family on the actual day and then had a little sleepover the following weekend with Laurel and Addie:)




Posin' with the cake:) Lilly wanted a Barbie cake and Laurel and Addie were GREAT helpers with decorating the cake and picking out the Barbie. Don't you love the proportions of Godzilla Barbie to the little ocean lol???








The girls HAD to have a picture in front of the tree...




Happy Girls:)

Happy Birthday Lilly bug!


*Christmas related post to come soon:)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun! My side of the family decided they were going to be out of town for the big day so we figured we'd have ourselves a Crow Thanksgiving in our tiny house. Somehow it managed to work out just great and we all had a wonderful time. This was my first experience making Thanksgiving dinner, and I am so grateful to my sisters-in-law for all of their help, and to my other in-laws for bringing stuff as well. I didn't get a picture of our spread; which I SWORE I wouldn't forget, but what can you do?

On the menu was:

*Turkey

*Ham

*Mashed potatoes & Gravy

*Green bean casserole

*Broccoli and cheese casserole (MY favorite Thanks Leah!)

*Sweet potato casserole

*Homemade Rolls

*The BEST party punch found here

and for dessert we made homemade:

*Apple pie

*Pecan pie

*French silk pie

*Pretzel salad

*and a purchased pumpkin pie for the pumpkin lovers...

I swear I'm forgetting something, but it might just be that making this stuff was SO time consuming that it just feels like we should have made more...

The day after Thanksgiving was spent with my side of the family at Gardner Village. I love their little shops, they are so charming, especially during the holiday season. Afterwards we had ourselves some delicious Pupusas (traditional Salvadoran dish) and helped my parents decorate their Christmas tree (our day after Thanksgiving tradition).

I'm so grateful for ALL of my family and for the love, comfort, and support we all try so hard to provide for one another. I don't know where I'd be without family. And with that said I leave you a Thanksgiving in instagrams...

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them"

-John F. Kennedy

Halloween 2011

As was mentioned in my previous post, we had ourselves a little Halloween party for the kids a couple weekends ago, and it was pure awesomeness. I absolutely LOVE parties, treats, people being hosted; however, I have to admit that I am an absolute nervous wreck when I'm the one doing all the planning. Lucky for me, I have some wonderful sisters-in-law, who helped me plan, shop, cook, clean and even the boys (thanks Matt and Joe) helped decorate. Needless to say it was tons of fun getting this ready for the kids.

As I've also mentioned in previous posts, I lost my camera. So I apologize in advance that the pics I've posted are not uniform...I know it shouldn't bug me. But it does. Badly. I need professional help.

For dinner we had the ULTIMATE comfort food, baked potato soup. Not only was this a big bowl of warm creamy potato soup goodness but we topped it off with some cheddar cheese, green onions, crumbly bacon, and a dollop of sour cream. delicious. We also had rolls, your basic chips/dips/fruits/cupcakes/way too much candy, and my favorite of the night were these little critters:

How cute are these little Oreo bats?? and they were SUPER easy to make. Check out our best bites for the how to on these guys. My SIL Bink introduced me to this website a couple months ago and it is addicting.

Kicking off our picture overload is the cutest little girl I know...

Emelia!!! I usually don't post blurry pics; for obvious reasons, but that cute little face can NOT be denied. She wasn't sporting it in this pic, but emmy was a cute little cow for Halloween.

Chloe (cowgirl minus her hat), Lilly (Prom queen), and Laurel (Ariel).

Little miss Addeline as a witch

Kaleb as a crazy-eyed ninja lol! I love this kid.

I love Chloe's face in this pic lol. Uncle Matt decided he wanted to do face painting for the kids and they LOVED it.

Group picture! We we're even lucky enough to have two little Spider Men:)

Along with face painting we had games, prizes and a pinata for the kids. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them mutilating the poor little mummy pinata, but they had SO much fun!

Initially this party was for the kids. Of course I was going to dress up, but I had NO idea that my in-laws were going to get THIS into it:

A Miami Vice twist on my BILs Jason and Dave

Leah and Bink as 80's girls. Aren't their costumes awesome? They obviously put a lot of work into these looks. Totally worth it!

LOL this is my BIL Joe. He was trying to figure out what to be last minute and came up with this awesome costume. I think we ended up deciding that he was one of those zombie killer video game guys. I'd say he pulled it off pretty well!




Zombie Cowboy and (human) Indian.

Dave and Lucy as Miami Vice and an 80's prom-goer. I wish we had a head to toe of Lucy's dress and shoes they were perfect!

The boys. I love how much they got into this whole photo shoot:

friends:)


And probably my MOST favorite pic of the night! This one was Kaleb's idea....

Happy Halloween!!! Love the Crow, Smith, and Martin families:)

DIY

I wish I had before pictures of our TV cabinet, but I guess you can't have it all. This used to be my grandma's, and although I love most of her old stuff this thing was an ugly brown mess. Actually I just realized if you look on my side bar at the picture of killer and his duck, the cabinet makes a cameo. It was that brown. For the longest time I've been wanting to get a new one, but there is something so satisfying about DIY that Matt and I just decided to go for it. All we did was paint, sand, stress and slather it with polycrylic. The pics I've posted don't really show the stressing as well as I'd like but you get the gist...


This is an up close of the sanding on the door. Matt doesn't really know it but, as far as I'm concerned it's not actually done...I want to get some cool knobs for the doors. I saw some beautiful antique knobs on the Anthropologie site but they were a tad pricey...I'll have to settle for a hardware store lol.

Here is a pic of it in the living room. I know, I know that side of the room is screaming for some end tables or something, that's one of my next projects/hunts.

....And if you didn't notice, killer boy is starved for attention. I couldn't get one picture without him in it.

On a side note how crazy/wonderful has the weather been here in good ol' UT? Fall is my VERY favorite season so last week for me was GLORIOUS! look at this absolutely stunning picture I got last week....
I just love how those leaves look like they're on fire.

And then this morning I got to walk around in this...

Lucky for me I love me some snow....I predict snowboarding in Matt's and my future sooner than we thought there would be!

I Hope everyone had an AWESOME Halloween!! We threw a Crow (little) kids Halloween party, and it was so much fun. As soon as I get more pics from my in-laws I'll post about it. The kids had a great time and the adults had some surprisingly awesome costumes that I can't wait to share.

I'll sign off with a pic of my three boys....you heard right.three. We have been taking care of my sister-in-law's dog Bruce (or "Brucey Kadoocey" as we like to call him) for a while, while her hubby is deployed in Iraq, but after seeing how well Killer and Bruce have bonded it was decided we would keep Bruce permanently! He is such a good, sweet little dog and he and killer are the BEST of friends. Thanks Bink and Mark (just so you know Matt and I are uncle and auntie, you guys will always mom and dad ;) )I love my boys...

This is Halloween...

Matt and I shared quite a relaxing Sunday yesterday with the majority of the day spent watching a show about America's most haunted places, and Swamp People. What? You've never heard of Swamp People? It's basically a camera crew following around a bunch of alligator hunters in the south. it. is. awesome. My favorite part of the show is trying to figure out what in the world the gater hunters are saying. Luckily for me, Matt's a really good interpreter being a southern man himself.

After dinner (my current obsession is twice baked potatoes. don't worry I made Matt some steak too) we watched some scary movies and carved pumpkins.

Here's our (more interesting part of the) night in pics:



My headless horseman

My guapo and his jacko


That pumpkin was actually really heavy lol.


Matt's awesome hand rising from the grave. I ALMOST picked this pattern, I wish I would've...

My favorite pic of the night.



And what Halloween activity is complete without....

...loads of sugar?

We also finally finished the TV cabinet last night...(insert big sigh of relief here). Pictures to come soon.