Recording Session

We got a babysitter yesterday (thanks, Sarah Pulham!) and started recording our new Christmas album! It always amazes us to realize how nervous it makes us to start recording. Either we play better when we're not recording, or we just don't worry about our mistakes so much when there is no mic on us!

Here is one of our takes from Christmas Time's a Coming, complete with commentary at the end! Not pictured is Nolan, to the left of Amanda on the cajon!



We're working on the next generation of Whistling Prairie and got Mabel to record a lively version of Jingle Bells, If you watch the tape you'll see we had to bribe her to sing for us! 

Camels and Kings

We thought we'd have a little fun this year with our Christmas CD pictures! We dressed up in nativity costumes and borrowed some camels to pose with us! Brittany enjoyed meeting the camels!

Crystal, who is generally afraid of large beasts of burden, felt it was safe to pet this one through the fence!

The Alpine mountains made a nice backdrop for King Nolan and his camel!

Ed grew his beard out just for our picture of the three kings. Nolan and John have been bearded for some time now. Now, we'll see how long Ed keeps his!

The ladies were supposed to be shepherds, but they might be more like two shepherds, a wise man and Mary. Oh, well!

We had a photographer take our pictures with the camels and are hopeful they turned out well!

Faux Christmas and Music

Mabel and Clementine got a cube tent for Christmas and enjoyed it very much. Learning how to share it peacefully will be the challenge!

We celebrated Christmas 4 days late this year, as we waited for Nolan to join us after his trip to the Pinstripe Bowl in New York with the Iowa band. Mabel had already had one Christmas with the Nuttalls and was happy to do it again!

We've been busy practicing all week, and have had fun with our new Christmas songs!

The kids are all on different nap schedules, and we generally have one of them hanging around the band! Clementine loved the harp!

Mabel loves to dance in the middle when there is music in the room!

Hugo was frequently able to sleep peacefully in the swing while we played!

We sometime think we are crazy to try to make a CD in one week during the holidays, but we just can't stop ourselves!

Kid Time

It's been fun having three grandchildren stay at our house this week! What a change from last year when we only had one!

Mabel is a silly monkey, and a lot of fun to be around!

Clementine is very mobile and also very curious. She wants to explore and touch everything! She is also very smiley and fun!

Hugo is starting to smile and interact and even rolled over for us one morning! He is  4 1/2 months old, but only 2 1/2 months "adjusted." Being born 10 weeks early changes all his expectations as to when he would reach certain milestones. He's doing well on all of them!

Crystal enjoys playing with the kids, especially when they snuggle up to her!

I'm trying to train a disinterested second generation on how to brush grandma's hair!

Ed and I are just amazed that we are lucky enough to have three grandchildren!

Brady Family Christmas Music Extravaganza

Yesterday we had my siblings and their families come over for our 2nd annual music evening! We also celebrated my birthday with a beautiful cake Brittany made for me! Everyone brought food and we ate before the music began!

The Pinyon Rats kicked the program off with Go Tell it on the Mountain (the Simon and Garfunkle version)!

Then the Stevens family sang Silent Night, followed by an excerpt from Hamilton, in which Isaac sang and played the piano at the same time!

My brother Jon, and his family did a very fun song about hot cocoa that we had never heard before!

Then, Caleb amazed us with some magic tricks. His sister, Amelia assisted him!

In honor of my birthday, Ed sang the Beatles' song When I'm 64! I have to admit, I loved it!

My nephew, Joe and my sister Joan played a sax and piano number called Take 5!

After which, they sang an original song on the inadvisability of working too hard!

Whistling Prairie finished up with a new version of Here We Come A-Wassailing that we're really enjoying!

If you want to see the videos, I uploaded them to my YouTube channel! We have Mabel dancing on our first number, and melting down on our final number! John does a great job of playing the guitar and comforting her!

Here is a link to the WhistlingPrairie YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO6KYprY32a7vz4bOR9RGgg

The Music Begins!

We convened in the Bush basement yesterday to work on our Whistling Prairie Christmas music! We got an amazing amount done, as we had worked out some of the arrangements beforehand!

We took turns passing the babies around when we weren't playing instruments! We're enjoying getting to know Hugo!

Clementine is a cuddly little thing (when she's not crawling all over the place)!

Mabel enjoyed Crystal read a Christmas story to her!

We also opened up the doll house and the barbie dolls for Mabel to play with while we were practicing. That worked well when Clementine wasn't sitting inside the house!

Crystal brought her mountain dulcimer with her and will be playing it on two songs! We're cautiously optimistic that despite having three babies in the house we'll be recording 11 songs in one week!

Christmas Day!

Nothing says party quite like Christmas pants! Amanda and Crystal arrived in Utah last night, and Brittany and John joined us in time to open our new Winter Wear!

The day started out right with Ed making breakfast for me, omelettes and blueberry pancakes! He also shoveled the driveways and vacuumed the house! That was a great birthday/Christmas present!

We joined Mom, Annette and Kent for a great birthday lunch at mom's house. She will be turning 90 this year and is doing amazingly well! She made things easier by buying pre-made pinwheel sandwiches, but even the fact that she is out shopping is a blessing! Ed taught Mom how to use her Pandora app on Roku. She is excited about her Bach and Beethoven stations!

Crystal's plane came in about 7:30, and we had time to try out the new restaurant area at the cell phone lot while we waited for Amanda. We shared a Costa Vida nachos plate, which was just the ticket for Christmas evening!

Hugo did well on his airplane flight, and was still awake enough when we got home that Brittany was able to coax a few smiles out of him!

John was playing his beautiful new autoharp when we got home. I had no idea that a nice one could have such a good sound!

We topped off a great day playing a rousing game of pit. We're looking forward to holing up in the basement this week and playing music. We also look forward to Nolan joining us on the 28th after he gets home from his jaunt with the Iowa marching band to New York City's Pinstripe Bowl!

Christmas Eve with the Nuttalls

We joined the Nuttalls for Christmas Eve last night. We had delicious pozole for dinner!

I got to wear the birthday hat, as it was almost my birthday!

Clementine had some quality time with her two grandpas!

Mabel enjoying rearranging the figures in the nativity scene!

Brittany directed the Christmas pageant, while Ellis read the Christmas story.

We acted out the parts in the story and sang songs along the way.

We finished up the evening with some caroling and ukulele playing! It was fun having James and his family there. It turns out his boys are very enthusiastic singers!

Luminarias at Thanksgiving Point

We went to see the lights at Luminaria Saturday night. It is one of the nicest light displays you can imagine!

We went with the Nuttalls and Marti's sister's family. We found out it is impossible to stay together in a crowd with a group that large!

Mabel loved the lights, as well as riding a reindeer!

By the time we reached the Savior of the World garden, Clementine had had it! She was finally consoled and fell asleep cuddled in Brittany arms!

Pictures don't do the light display justice! It is being surrounded by the myriad of lights that is so amazing!

And the subtle lighting of the statues of the life of Christ is such a nice way to end the tour!