Exciting recording news!

GUESS WHAT! WE ARE FINISHED WITH THE CD!!

To celebrate, we are having a CD release party. The thrift store is graciously hosting this--thanks guys!  I am super excited about this evening! I will be singing all 8 of the songs on the CD.  You are all invited! You could even come sing at the open mic if you wanted to. :)

I cannot explain to you how exciting it was once everything for the order was sent off.  We set goals for ourselves that we missed, but also goals that we accomplished.  We definitely took longer to complete it than what we envisioned, but I think to be able to say that WE COMPLETED IT is for sure more important. 

I believe we started in May of 2014 and we finished in September of 2016.  Considering that I was pregnant, that we had Bryce, that we went to NYC for six weeks, and also just that we did normal life in that time span, I think we did an okay job. :) The glory goes to God though, literally.  He gave us the strength and perseverance to finish.  It's a dream come true.

Also, thank you for checking up on us and for asking how recording was going.  Thank you for supporting us in this project!

The music will be available through places like Amazon MP3, ITunes, Spotify, Google Play, etc.  And of course there will be the hardcopy CD if you'd prefer that. 

I will keep you all posted and let you know when it's available for purchase!

Have a great night!

A Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words, so...

Almost one going on 16!

Haha! Grandpa pants!

These two truly were the best of buds!

I did. :)

Bryce's first trip to the zoo! He wanted this animal pretty badly.



Ha! He wasn't sure what to think!

See? Best of buds.

Sometimes I have a love-hate thing with sand too, buddy.

These guys were also pretty tight.

Me and my beauty cousin, Marilyn.

His face the whole ride.  I'm sure he loved it deep down.

The crew! Minus Dustin.  My cousin Marilyn & her husband, Brandon, and my two brothers, Jesse & Austin!

Daddies are so much fun.

A HUGE highlight! Meeting this miracle Zoe babe for the first time!

We met with some friends from Nevada for dinner one evening! Time well spent!

Once we took lunch to Dustin on the jobsite! Bryce was amazed by the big equipment. I'm pretty sure I could've just left Bryce there with Dustin and he would've been completely content till it was time to go home. Probably. Well, probably not, but he was so intrigued!

CANNOT WAIT TO MEET MY BRAND NEW NEPHEW!

Bryce tried/licked fiber balls when he found them in the fridge the other day.

He does love his stories! Sometimes he'll be content for a whole 3-5 minutes looking at books. Yes, that is long actually. Ask any mother.

Must. Get. That. CD case. He's obsessed with CD and DVD cases.

 His almost complete outfit for Aunt KaKa's wedding!

I just need him.

 The other day my good friend, Christine and her baby girl, Kaya took us to an indoor play place for kids. Now all I want to do is go there every week.  It was magical and I just wanted to try out everything myself.



Actually, this is mostly what Bryce was entertained by. Staring at the other kids.

 

Bryce & his Kaya friend!

Playing is hard work, guys.

 His cheesecake find! Don't judge me for letting him play in the fridge. I have had to childproof it though!

I guess only the true geeks out there will know what this is and understand Dustin's excitement over it. But that's what he's been up to. :) Pretty cool if I must say so myself, and I'm not even a geek.

So that's a little of our life! I think I need to do these picture posts more often!

In other RECORDING news...!!!!! I know, I know, we didn't hit our January deadline, but that's okay, we tried. :) The editing is completely finished though! Next on the list is mixing! Andrew said that shouldn't take long, so this thing is actually getting finished!! Stay tuned!



Recording Update #3

Hi everyone! After having a break for two weeks, we're back!
Let me tell you, we're all pretty excited to have our Saturdays free again. We're all pretty excited to ACTUALLY BE FINISHED with this project.
Yet, like Dustin said today, it'll be a little sad when it's all over, too.
But mostly so exciting! :)

Today was a great day...because we finished all our tracking! When we review the music and Andrew mixes everything, there for sure is a possibility of having to go back and re-record a piece or two.  But today was a huge milestone we finally reached!

It started off with bacon, eggs, grape juice, and coffee. Haha! For real, it did. Even though the "start time" is 9:30, we don't usually start recording till an hour or so later.  Andrew, Dustin, and I (have become, haha!) are very chill, so we all have a great time catching up over coffee, over lunchtime, and over our many break times.

But we did record today too! We did three little projects.
For the first one, Andrew added strings to the song "Cast Your Cares". It is so lullaby-ey, it makes me want to cry and fall asleep all at the same time! That's a good thing, ha!
The second project was adding more background vocals to "Colton's Song".  Once we figured it out, that was very simple and so fast.
The third project was doing a retake on the guitar line in "Colton's Song".  I was napping for that part--the beautiful part of recording in/at home. :)

The timing of this project truly is amazing actually.  For starters, I never would've thought I'd have the time or energy to do a project like this while pregnant and then a mom of a young baby.  But God has worked it out so beautifully!  He's given me energy and tired moments and time to nap! And we've gotten so much done just by working every free Saturday we have!

I feel so blessed with how God works out details that normally would've (and did a little) stressed me out. He is such a good Father!

Our next steps are reviewing and mixing.

Stay tuned! :)

Recording Update #2

Today's recording update & pictures.  That is today's blog post summary!

Today the guys have been mainly working on adding guitar to the songs, "I Surrender" and "Colton's Song"!  Mostly, what this consists of is them brainstorming together and thinking what style of guitar sounds best, practicing a little, critiquing, and finally, recording. :)

"I Surrender" and "Colton's Song" are my top two favorite songs, I think.  Not all of my songs have stories behind them, but these two do--maybe that's why they're favorites.

Anyways, when I would play music for friends or family, it would often be one or both of these songs.  Of any of the music that wouldn't have been forgotten, it hopefully would have been these two.  I've played them over and over again, with just piano.  Then guitar was added when Dustin started playing the music as well.  I'm so used to hearing this music in a very acoustic version.  So that was a hurdle for me/us--trying to decide if or when we were adding too much and taking away from the message of the music/trying to be Rock Stars when we really are not, ha!

But Praise God, I think we got it figured out today with the guitar being added!  I'm really excited with how it's sounding.  It makes me so much more excited to release this CD! I guess today's recording was a mini breakthrough then!

So, another good day.  Thanks, God!

My normal "this is how I record when I'm pregnant" position. Standing and singing at the same time took too much energy. :)  

Dustin's sister, Amy, flew out to visit and record some background vocals!  

Ashton did SO WELL. He barely made a sound that long day of recording!  

Blankets, always blankets.  

Andrew, the master producer!  

So much practice. 

And discussion.  

 And finally, recording!

My brother, Austin, recording background vocals! 

Bryce is infatuated with Andrew, no lie. He'll often stare-gaze and smile at him, haha! 

Vic-tor-yyyy. Boom. Bam. Done. 

Bryce, the Champer-Whamper. 

Feelin' that beat, ha!

We're going to be off for the next two weekends, but then we're back! Until next time!