Mercy River Music

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

We just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! It's such a sweet time. This year my almost-three year old is understanding the whole "Santa" thing, and although that's been a lot of fun, we've also been trying to teach her the true meaning of Christmas. We've told her the story of Christ's birth over and over. That along with having a new baby in the home, I've been especially overwhelmed by the miracle that came in a little bundle so long ago.

I'm so grateful for a Heavenly Father who willingly sent His eldest son to this world, all because we needed a Savior. I'm grateful for Mary and her example. I'm grateful for foreseeing wise men, humble shepherds, and a trusting and faithful Joseph. But most of all I'm grateful for my Savior. His atonement changes everything! I have gained new understanding of that atonement this year, and more than ever I know I could not function without the gospel.

I hope this Christmas you are surrounded by the people you love, and that you feel Christ's love for you. Thank you for all your support throughout this year! Merry Christmas!
XOXO
Brooke, Whitney, and Soni

PS Soni had her baby! All the babies are here, so starting Jan. 2nd, we're ready to go. And guess what our New Year's resolution is-update our blog once a week! :)

Baby #2 Has Arrived!

2008-11-24T12:04:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our second Mercy River baby! Whitney and her family welcomed Zachary David into their family a few short weeks ago. Whitney was ECSTATIC to achieve her goal of an unmedicated birth. Everything went great and both baby and momma are doing well!

With two babies down...there's only one to go! Soni is due with her little one in about 4 weeks. Despite all of the baby action we have still managed to stay busy doing firesides for youth groups, Relief Societies, and ward and stake functions. Check out our website to book us--we would love to come see you!

XOXOXO

1 Down, 2 to Go!

2008-09-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-21T12:12:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-07-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-21T12:34:00.001-07:00

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

Whew!

2008-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

What a crazy week! Sorry for the delay in new posts-I know this is WAY overdue. But better late than never, right? (Right, Krista? :) )

So the reasoning? Whit was crazy busy this week-I was on vacation-and Soni, oh Soni, has now jumped on the pregnancy bandwagon and was basically bed ridden with morning sickness and sheer exhaustion! So there ya go! But we have to talk about Women's Conference! It was a BLAST. We felt like Mormon rockstars! The crowd was so full of energy, we had this unbelievable band playing with us, and it was just too fun. The other performers were so great, it's such an incredible experience to sing with them. Below are some pics from some of the CUTEST girls we've met-thanks girls, for emailing them to us! It was definitely a night we'll never forget, and we hope hope hope we get to do it again next year! (No pressure DB!)

That was just a crazy day anyway-that morning we had the chance to perform on Good Things Utah. OK, these women are basically Utah celebrities, and we know they have quite the fan base, so to be honest, we were more nervous for that than Women's Conference. But oh my, they were nice! We did our best to not think about the thousands of women watching us at that moment, and then tried to avoid eye contact with the cameras, and then...it was over! It went so fast, and as always, the anticipation turned out a lot worse than the actual event. It was really fun! It helped that half the studio audience was made up of our friends and family! :) So thanks friends and family! Those GTU women were even cuter in person than they are on TV, (is that possible?) and we're SO grateful we had the chance to perform. It was such a fun morning. So thanks ABC4!

And last, I wanted to throw in another thank you. We have so many people that do so much for us, so I think I'm going to add a thank you each week, and then maybe by the end of the year we'll have them all mentioned! (Yes, there's that many!) This week's thank you goes to our close friend, songwriter, producer, mentor, etc. Jenny Phillips. She's done so much for us-given us all kinds of opportunities, written us some amazing songs, and has just been such a strong shoulder for us to lean on. We've learned so much from her, and are so grateful to her for giving us a chance to do something more with music. We love you Jenny!

OK kids, that's all for this week. Stay tuned-the three of us need to clean out our cameras and I'm sure there will be some pics posted in the upcoming days! XOXO
Brooke

We miss y'all in Oklahoma!

2008-04-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Another week has gone by, with another Time Out for Women under our belts. We had just as much fun at this one as we have at the ones in the past, but this one was a little bittersweet-it's our last one of the Spring! It's nice to be home with our families on weekends, but we love doing Time Out, and we love meeting all the incredible women, so we're glad we start back up in the fall. Whitney's husband accompanied us on this trip, so it was nice to have a "man servant" on hand! He even went out at 10:30 on Friday night to get us pregnant gals a pizza! What a guy!

We had the privilege to be in Oklahoma City during the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Soni and I had to fly there Thursday night and didn't have sound check until 5:00, so we had the day to wander the city, and we were able to see the Memorial. It was such a moving experience. I'm always so impressed to see how a senseless act of terror can bring a community so close. We were amazed with the people we met, and hope that those who were affected by this tragedy have been blessed with the peace and healing Christ offers.

We'd like to offer a fond farewell to our new, and close friend Dean Hughes and his sweet wife! We've been able to attend the last two Time Outs with Dean, and he's been an absolute blast, but he and his wife have been called to serve in Nauvoo on missions. They'll be leaving in September, so we won't see them for awhile! Dean, we'll take care of your house, seriously, just let us know...

OK, "peeps", (Soni's new favorite word!) we will be on Good Things Utah next week! Next Thursday, May 1st! Oh, we're so stinking excited for this. Then we head to Women's Conference that night, where we'll be performing with quite the line-up. We're so excited to see some our favorite people again-Kenneth, Michael, and Hillary (goodness, dear, we love ya!) have been so great to us, and have welcomed us into this music industry family with open arms. Thanks to ya'll in OK, you were amazing! XOXO

Love, Brooke

P.S. We'll post some pics a little later...Whit, share the love babe!

Time Out Girls!

2008-04-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had our 3rd Time Out event-this time we were in sunny Fresno, California. The weather was HEAVEN! Coming from a snowy, rainy, freezing Utah into clear blue skies and 75 degrees was the best welcome we could've received! So we of course were in love with the town the minute we stepped off the plane. We had a great time performing. It was a smaller crowd this time, but oh my, the energy was awesome! The minute we started singing this cute lady in the front got up and danced and sang the whole time. It's so much easier to perform when you have a great audience to feed off of. We performed with the Nashville Tribute Band for the first time. They are so incredible, I'm almost tempted to move to Nashville! It was a lot of fun this weekend.

One of the things we love about travelling to these events is meeting the presenters. Normally we don't have a chance to talk much-we're all rushing, and most of the time we leave the event on Saturday and head straight to the airport. This time though, there were no flights from Fresno Saturday afternoon, so we all flew out Sunday morning. Since we had a Saturday night to kill, the cute Time Out team arranged for us to go to dinner together. It was such a fun night! We learned so much and laughed even more. Thanks y'all, for an unforgettable dinner!

One more Time Out-this weekend we're in Oklahoma City. We love doing this, and love meeting all you fantastic women! Until then...XOXO
Brooke

Soni was cold at dinner, and thought her bitsy little napkin could keep her warm-she's such a crack-up!

Us and the "gang"-the presenters; Dean Hughes, Ardeth Kapp, Kenneth Cope, Emily Watts, Sharon Larson; and the DARLING Time Out gals! Thanks for the fun night!

PS I need to throw in a "Thank You' to Krista's assistant, Whitney. She was with us through the hand-to-hands, drove us around looking around for a KFC so prego Whitney could have some mashed potatoes, kept us on schedule and Sharpies-in-hand during Ladies' Night, pep-talked us through the Bob Lonsberry show, and is just so fun all around! Thanks Whitney for all your help during those crazy days!

Our Crrrraaaazzzzyyyy Weekend!

2008-04-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

Brooke again...We survived! First of all-General Conference was amazing! It's so nice to hear from our church leaders. It's amazing how each conference you hear at least one talk that you think, "That was written for me!" They are truly inspired, and we can't wait for October's session! :)

Friday morning we found ourselves nervous and waiting in the control room for our turn on the Bob Lonsberry show. Side note-the nice thing about doing a radio show is you don't have to do your hair or dress up; Ponytails and jeans work great!-Bob was amazing, you'd think he's been doing this for years! :) He made it so easy to just talk and forget about the hundreds of people listening. Singing on the radio was an interesting experience-it's quite different singing in a radio studio than a recording studio! But it was a lot of fun, and we want to thank Bob and his sound guy for making it so enjoyable.

Saturday night we found ourselves in the midst of hundreds of women chatting, laughing, and shopping. We were so excited! It was such a laid back atmosphere, which made it really fun to perform. We sang three different times, for 15 minutes each. In between our performances we had the privilege to hear Carmen Rasmussen. I remember voting for her on American Idol, but as she sang we were looking at each other saying, "She is AMAZING! I can't believe she didn't win that season!" She sounded great, and it was fun to meet her. It was such a fun night-we met so many incredible people. Our favorite story of the night was a girl we met from San Diego. Her stake challenged their youth to read the Book of Mormon-all those who succeeded earned a trip to Utah and tickets to all 4 conferences, and she had completed the challenge. It was so great to see a 13 year old girl absolutely giddy about the opportunity, and she proudly showed us the pages and pages of notes she had already taken. We were so impressed with her spirit and faith.

We have another crazy weekend-Friday we're off to Fresno California for the next Time Out for Women Event. Make sure you come say hi if you're there! We love hearing your incredible stories, and we're constantly inspired by you. Also feel free to email us pics and stories that we can put on our blog. We want this to be about you as well! We love y'all! XOXO

Brooke

Friday morning-don't we look NERVOUS!

Waiting during a commercial break...

After the ordeal-with Bob! He's so nice!

Signing at Ladies' Night

Carmen Rasmussen...and us!

Here we Go!

2008-04-03T14:21:00.001-07:00

Hi it's Brooke! Our first post! We're so excited to have this up and running-there's so much we want to do with our blog! We hope people will send pictures and experiences that we can share, and we hope it'll be a "window" into the lives of Whitney, Soni, and myself.

Tomorrow we have our first radio interview...! Auggh! It will be on the Bob Lonsberry show (570 AM for all you Utahns!) in the morning. We're really excited/nervous, but I think the anticipation is always worse than the actual event. Soni and I made an agreement-if there's a question that stumps us we'll turn it over to Whit-she's good at these kinds of things! Make sure you tune in! And then on to...

Ladies Night! Saturday night we'll be at the downtown Deseret Book during the Priesthood Session of the LDS General Conference, along with Carmen Rasmussen. We're so excited for this! Because the store isn't quite big enough to accommodate the number of women that attend, it will actually be held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It will be a blast so we hope to see y'all there!

And finally, we're so excited for General Conference! We're so grateful to have a chance to hear from our leaders, and can't wait to hear from our newest prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. We hope you all get a renewed sense of strength and hope from this conference. Thanks for all your love, support and kind words and emails-keep in touch, eh?
XOXO
Brooke

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2008-02-27T12:12:00.001-08:00

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