1 Down, 2 to Go!

OK, so this is 3 weeks late-but anyone who has had a newborn, or known someone with a newborn, you understand, right? I had my baby! He was a little early, which we expected. What we didn't expect was the 2 weeks of bed rest in the hospital, prior to my c-section! What an adventure that turned out to be! I'll spare you the boring details-long story short, our cute little guy, (and myself!) are both healthy and happy! We had our baby Chase on September 5th-he was 6 lbs. 10 oz. and 19 inches long. He's an absolute doll, even if he does look like an old man! :) I thought I'd share some pictures of our big day with ya'll! Thanks for all the cute emails, and for all the love and support we've gotten!

Me and the hubby

Our daughter holding her brother for the first time!

Our Baby Chase

P.S. A little update on our calendar-we're no longer doing the Fall Time Out tour. It's a little much with 3 babies scheduled in 3 months, (thanks Laurel, for your amazing and inspired insight!) so we're going to rehearse our behinds off, and hope we get a shot at the Spring 2009 Time Out tour. In the meantime we have a couple firesides scheduled-check out our website! And!!!

We will be at the Layton Hills Mall for Ladies Night next weekend! Come have some fun with us, while the boys are attending the Priesthood session of General Conference.

XOXO

Brooke

Our WINDY night at Cherry Hill

There's one word to describe our performance at Cherry Hill last weekend: WINDY! Chairs were blowing over, leaves were flying, and a few times we had to really steady ourselves on stage to keep from toppling down ourselves! But it was an experience we will never forget, and despite the wind we had a GREAT time performing at this cute venue.

Singing our last song, "I am a Child of God."

Here is a picture of our three pregnant bellies! These days, we refer to ourselves as "Maternity River." It just seems more fitting. Brooke is due in a few weeks, Whitney follows 6 weeks later and Soni is 6 weeks after that. It wasn't planned this way, but it's kind of convenient!

Here is "Mercy Men," showing off thier growing bellies as well.

Some members of our fan club waiting for the show to begin.

For the record, our kids have dubbed thenselves, "Mercy Kids." Watch out for this rising talent!

The official Mercy River fan club/support group (aka, our families) showed up extra early to get the best seats. We love you!!

The whole Mercy River clan.

Thanks, Cherry Hill! We would love to come back again :)

Yes, we're here!

Hello y'all! July has been a small "vacation" month for us! Whit was out for the first two weeks-Soni's out for this entire last week, so besides a rehearsal and a meeting, we've barely seen each other! It's been rather sad, really! But June was nuts, August will be seriously insane, and baby #1 will join our brood of children in September, so it's been great to have some time with our families.

We start back up next week-we will be performing with the rest of the Shadow Mountain artists for the LDSBA Convention on Tuesday, and then we have our last girls' camp for the year on Friday! :( We LOVE doing girls' camps, so we hope we have lots more opportunities next year. Make sure you check our website for the rest of our August concerts! It's quite the month!

We promised a shout out to one of our favorite gals-Gracie Shirley. She's one of the cutest 6 year olds we've met, and she is chock full of talent! She was able to come to one of our firesides in June, and we fell in love with her immediately! So "Hi Gracie! We love you!"

Still Learning!

Do you ever have those moments in life when you look back and still kick yourself? You still get that pit in your stomach, and you feel your cheeks getting hot from embarrasment? I think those moments, as awful as they seem, are there to teach us, even humble us. Most days our performances are on and we feel great about it. But other times we feel like we chose the wrong song, or we didn't blend well, or one, or two, or all three of us didn't hit that note. (And when one doesn't hit the note, we all sound off!) We've had several things go on this last month-2 girls' camps, a couple concerts, (and one more fireside tomorrow!), and we've had a mix of those two experiences. I think it's human nature to get discouraged or upset, but if we can learn to take the negative experiences in life, and use them to motivate us and humble us, we'll come away stronger than before. And how will we know what to improve if we don't fail, right? It's a tough lesson, but a valuable one. And one we're all learning. So here ya go, your motivation for the day! Blush over that mistake for the last time-get rid of that pit in your stomach-learn from it and move on to the next. And in the meantime, know we're fighting the same battle!

Our "Thank You" this week goes to Tyler Castleton. He has been the head of the music division at DB and has done so much for us and our album. He's been such a great support, and we're excited to have opportunities to work with him in the future. He's an extremely talented musician, and we feel privileged to know him. And a big welcome to Bob Ahlander, who has taken his place! We're thrilled to work with him and start sharing all our crazy ideas. Heads up, Bob! :) XOXO
Brooke

Staying Clean

Hi everyone! We had the opportunity to sing at a 24 stake Young Single Adult fireside this last week, and the speaker was...drum roll...Sheri Dew and Wendy Watson Nelson. They did an incredible job, and talked about staying clean in a filthy world. We learned a lot-As Sister Dew put it, it's not that we live in a BAD world, but it's definitely full of filth. One thing she said that stuck in my mind was "Foreordination is not enough." It's not enough to know we were saved for the Latter days. Were we strong in heaven? Yep. Is this a hard time to be on this earth? You bet. Were we saved for this time, because we have certain tasks and responsibilities? I'm sure we were. But it takes more than that knowledge to do what we have been sent to do. I'm big on finding your purpose-I truly believe, (as I always tell the YW in our ward) that we've each been sent with certain talents, strengths, and even weaknesses-because Heavenly Father knew we were the only ones who could take those tools, and use it to further His work. It's fun to be able to sing at these types of events, but I always feel like we come away with so much more.

This week we have two firesides-both at Stake Girls' camps. Now, I don't know about Whit or Soni, but I can't think of a better place to be. I LOVE Girls' camp! We're really excited about this, and excited to perform for the Young Women.

Which leads me to our weekly "Thank You"-(I know, I forgot last week!) With all these firesides, (plus drive time!) I have to send a thank you to our husbands. They are so sweet, and patient with our schedules, and even more, are our biggest fans. (We even call Soni's husband "The Manager"!) So thanks guys-we love you!
XOXO
Brooke

Yay!

We're so excited-we're finally on ITunes! Spread the word...

Summer's right around the corner! I can't believe school's out for the summer, I swear the school year just started! But this is such a fun time of year. I thought I'd leave y'all a fun summer recipe-although it's good anytime of the year. It's a little time consuming, but oh my, it's worth the effort!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad
2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons white sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and allow to set briefly. When mixture is about the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to go on our website and sign up for our email list! We'll send out a newsletter each month full of tips, scriptures, thoughts, and recipes-straight to your inbox! How fun is that? Until next week...!
XOXO
Brooke

Let's try this again...

OK, Blogger is driving me nuts! It won't let me post pictures! Grrrr...I'll get to the bottom of this, but until then...

This last week has been a quiet one for us. With the craziness that lies in Time Out, and all the marketing whirl, it's been nice to sit with our families and be calm for a minute. (Oh wait, I can't believe I was thinking being with kids equals calmness...)

I wanted to share a quick thought today-lately I've had some challenges arise regarding my calling in the ward. This week, an answer was provided to me through my Stake YW Presidency. It requires a lot of work on my part, but the outcome would not only bless the young women in my ward, but their families. However, even knowing all the positive things that would come from the hard work, I was initially overwhelmed, and to be honest, my first thought was "No thanks!" This was not the answer I expected! I knew in my heart it was right, but I was scared. What if my family suffers? What if I fail? What if it has the opposite effect and I make things worse? Then I remembered a scripture I read about a month ago in Mosiah. It says, "Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings." (Mosiah 8:18)

So I am once again learning the lesson, that through Him, all things are possible. So now, I welcome this challenge! I want to encourage all of you who are facing a problem right now, to have the faith to work mighty miracles. You have the power to be a great benefit to those around you, and if you put your trust in the Lord, he will bless you and your family for your effort.

And last but not least-our thank you "Shout Out" this week goes to our own Krista Maurer, marketing guru. We're so grateful for all the work she's put into getting our album out there. She's worked tirelessly answering our dumb emails and questions, and has taught us to be "Gracious"! Thanks Krista, for all you do-we love ya! XOXO
Brooke