It's the most wonderful time of the year!!
Hey everyone! I know I don't usually send out this many emails in a month! But there's just SO many exciting things happening!
- We are having our "Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest" again! So pull out your ugly sweaters and post them on our Facebook!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwUCOHsV7JQ&feature=channel_video_title - ANDRIOD PHONE USERS! We now have a FREE app that you can download and you'll see our shows, pictures, songs, Christmas song, and instant updates!
http://www.reverbnation.com/mobile-app/62829/brightlightparade - We are honored to be in a contest for Christian Connections 2011 Voters Choice New Artist/Band of the Year! But we need YOUR votes! Just go to this link and vote for Bright Light Parade!
http://www.facebook.com/questions/10150467432184489/ - And last but not least! We are having a SUPER DUPER Christmas Merch Sale!! If you like free stuff and shipping you should check out our page!
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150397437647791
Words cannot express how happy we are to have the frans (friends/fans) that we do. We are blessed beyond measure!
We hope you all have an amazing Christmas with your friends and family!
<33BLP
Don't take advantage. (Torre)
We have been going since I was 9 and Lex was 11. Its a weekend to get away and do "dad" stuff. Like shoot guns (I hate guns.. But Lex shot a pistol this year!), paintball, archery, build rockets, disc golf, have a formal dinner (Our dads write us love notes (: )and so much more. Lex and I cherish this time with our dad since he likes to be home while us girls go out on the road.
We always meet up with our friends the Mortensons, Asproths, and Thoreens when we get there and its tradition to play volleyball till 1am and play paintball daughters against the dads. (So far we usually win..) ;)
During Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning we have 4 sessions to dig into Gods word and then break out into sessions so we can talk about "girl" stuff with our friends. Its so awesome to catch up with our friends about life... oh and boys... ;)
Lex and I are so blessed to have the dad we do and this weekend is always a friendly reminder of that.
At the end of the weekend our group gets together, picks a rock for themselves or as a family, and we go to a rock pile that has been in the works for years. We all stand around it, read Joshua 4, say how thankful we are, what we learned during the weekend and pray with each other. As we were praying this year God put on my heart "Don't take advantage". Now.. If you know me.. I do NOT like crying.. and so everyone prayed and it was silent.. till one of the dads said "Girls.. If God is laying something on your heart.. share it.." I started crying and told everyone (mostly to the girls) "While we were praying God put on my heart to NEVER take advantage of our dads. We are blessed to have them and some people don't even have one. And if we didn't have our dads we wouldn't know what to do." While we were praying I was just going to say "bless our travels home.. thanks for this awesome weekend...etc.." and God THE MAKER OF EVERYTHING told me to speak out when I wasn't even looking or wanting to. When God wants it... He gets it.. :)
So I just wanted to blog about our weekend with our dad and hopefully some of you girls out there email us and ask us to come with your dads next year! It is so much fun! So I will be waiting ;)
Here's some pictures!
And that's our weekend at Father/Daughter.
Mail time!
Labels:
Blessed,
Bright Light Parade,
Mail,
Nashville,
Songs
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I just wanted to blog about our life a little bit!
We have new songs that Lex and our friend Eric worked on the last time we were down in Nashville and they sound so awesome! We can't wait for all of you to hear them! We currently don't have many shows for the rest of the year to take a little break and get refocused on the band and have time to spend the holidays with our family and friends. :)
We now have a P.O. box so if you ever want to send us a letter to encourage us or whatever heres the address :)
P.O. box 891 Faribault, MN 55021
We are planning to go back on the road in February and hopefully getting a new record out soon!
Thank you so much for keeping up with our craziness and blessing us along the way! You are all so amazing and we are blessed by you!
<3Torre
Nashville take 2! (Torre)
We are currently in Nashville writing some more with our friend Eric.
Lex is writing a song while I write this superly awesome blog! :)
This time we drove down here in my car to save money.
It was a 13 hour drive and Lex and I did it in one day.
Since then we've just been writing and hanging out with our friends that go to school down here, so its nice to catch up!
We checked out a church down here called Journey and it was such an awesome church! If we lived down here... pretty sure we already found a church :)
Have you guys seen that Lex's book she co-wrote is out now!? You should go buy 1.. or 2.... or 10! Its on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and a bunch of other places!
If you wanna see some pictures that we took while we are in Nashville, go to www.facebook.com/brightlightparade and you can find them there!
Thanks for reading and supporting us!
<3Torre
Helloooo Fall!
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We head out on a 10 day tour in about a week and a half, out to Virginia Beach! We have shows on the way there and on the way back, so if you live on the East Coast, check our schedule to see if you can catch a show!
We are in the process of writing new music, and also keeping busy with our everyday lives! I spend much time watching a 7 month old during the week, and when we don't have shows on the weekends, I work at a banquet center in a hotel... serving mostly wedding receptions! I also keep busy as a youth leader, and serving on the worship team at my church! Torre is now a youth leader as well, and she also serves on the Youth Worship Team. We absolutely LOVE our Church, "River Valley Church"...
We are believing for big things to happen this next year, and that God would do great things through us! We are SO blessed by each and every one of you who pray for us, support us, and encourage us.
<33 Lex & Torre
Lovin' Nashville!
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We can't believe that our trip to Nashville is already half way over!
So far we have written, hot tubbed, ate delicious meals, went to an amazing studio and met a well known producer, quality time with our manager, and just enjoying our time here.
We wrote 3 songs in 3 days and love them!
It's amazing how you look up to people in bands and they are never how you thought they would act or be. But we got to write with Nick and meet his wife Trish and they are such amazing individuals and together! Its so good to see that in the industry.
Now we are at the hotel watching "Wipe out" ahahaha it's a good show! :)
We can't wait for you all to hear the new songs!
Naaaaaaaashville!!
Labels:
Americas Got Talent,
Dog,
Nashville,
Stellar Kart,
Superchick,
Zombies
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This is our first time ever being here and we LOVE it!
You know how when you're younger, listening to your CD player (YES cd player!) thinking how cool it would be to meet the band or people in the band some day?
Well today that same true! We went to the Baumhardt household which happens to be Nick (Stellar Karts guitarist) and Trish (lead singer of Superchick). You should've seen me and Lex before we got to their house... I was in the car saying "Guys.. I'm so nervous.." and we met Nick and he was one of the coolest guys we've met!
We're here to write songs with Nick and meet some people! Today we met with our friend Amy Wolter and ate some amazing mexican food as well! We feel so privileged to be meeting and working with the people that we have! We wouldn't have thought in a bajillion gazillion years we would be meeting and working with such amazing people!
Now we are just hanging out in our hotel room watching AGT and resting before another long day of writing tomorrow!
 |
| This is me and my new friend Mila! |
I know this was a little boring.. but I told you all I would blog! so here it is! Hopefully I'll have more to say tomorrow!
Much love <3
Torrrrrrrre.
p.s. here's Lex's personal blog.. it may be more interesting ;) http://lexsjourney.blogspot.com)
p.s. here's Lex's personal blog.. it may be more interesting ;) http://lexsjourney.blogspot.com)
Rock stars? Rock no thank you! (Torre)
Labels:
Bright Light Parade,
Facebook,
God,
Guitars,
Higher Ground,
Love,
Rock,
Shows,
Stars,
Tour
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Do you know what our days look like when we’re home? We spend time with family, clean the house, spend time at church, work at the Holiday Inn and spending time at home doing nothing.
Does that sound like a “rock star” to you?
When we’re on the road, this is what our days look like. We wake up (usually early..), get ready (takes about an hour..), load up the van or trailer, drive hours, get to the show, unload and set up, sound check, eat dinner, play a show, meet amazing people, tear down equipment, load up and drive either home, to a hotel or a host home and repeat this for as long as we’re on tour. J
Does that sound like a “rock star” to you?
If those make someone sound like a rock star then you’ve got it all wrong. When Lex and I were younger and started the band we wanted so hard to try and make it “big” with music and be like these other bands we looked up to. We tried acting like “huge rock stars” and it got us nowhere. We have realized that being a rock star is not what we want. We’re normal people with normal jobs and happen to be in a band that travels sharing Gods word and love. We have had the privilege to play with some bands that we have always looked up to and wanted to be like. We saw how they acted on stage and off. We couldn’t believe how they would stay in their buses all day, or play a show and not looking like they’re having any fun at all and acted like what I’d call “divas”.
We played a show yesterday at a festival in Minnesota called Higher Ground and here is all what went wrong during our set: Ears weren’t working, guitar straps broke, guitar strings broke, amps weren’t working, and to top it all off we were already running 10 minutes late with our sound check. But you know what? We were all still smiling and having a blast. When we got done and all loaded up we had a voice mail from our little helper that said, “You guys need to not dilly dally. There’s a signing line for you guys.” As I was walking to the merch table I was thinking “I bet when I get there, there’s going to be one person..” I got to the table and there was no one there. So I thought to myself “I knew it!” Our little helper handed us markers, pointed and said “Okay.. There’s the line!” All 4 of us looked at each other and couldn’t believe that many people would want our signatures, or even wait in line!
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| It may not look like a lot.. but it was a lot for us! J |
What I want this blog to get across is, we are not rock stars and we don’t ever want to be. God has brought us to where we are to be the difference the world needs to see. Just because we’re in a band does not make us more cool or better than anyone.
We do what we do because we love what we do. J
If you need prayer, or just want to talk write to us!
brightlightparade@hotmail.com
brightlightparade@hotmail.com
Or add us on Facebook! :)
facebook.com/lexbanderson
facebook.com/torreblp
<33
Welcome to Minnejungle! (Torre)
Labels:
Bright Light Parade,
hot,
sonshine,
trailer
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It seems that Minnesota is never happy.. It's either sad, angry, or just really cold. This past week has been on record the hottest days ever in Minnesota. They're comparing our temperatures to jungles... WHAT!? So I've been spending most of my time eating ice cream and hanging inside with the nice air conditioning.. but this past weekend we had a show in Willmar, Minnesota at Sonshine Festival. Lex and I have been going to that festival for 6 years and the first year we went we got burnt like no other, stayed at stage 2 all day to see Falling Up, The Wedding, Run Kid Run, and Barlow Girl. Our best friends mom always told us we were going to be playing main stage some day and we all just kinda laughed at her and brushed it off. Last year we played on the Show Mobile Stage and we were very happy with just playing at Sonshine but then our booking agent called us and let us know that we were playing Main Stage this year... WHOA! We were all taken back.. We played the same day as Newsboys, Anberlin, The Almost, Francesca Battistelli and many more amazing bands. We felt SO blessed to be on that stage with such amazing bands. So thank you to all of you who came out (an hour earlier!) to come see us! You are all so amazing :)
And if you didn't know... on our last tour we ended up having to buy a new trailer. With that, it had us go into more debt. We had heard of this online giving place called Kickstarter. So we thought we'd give it a try because we realized we can't keep supporting BLP on our own. So we only put up half of what we needed to raise ($3,100) and in 45 days we made our goal! So thank you again to everyone who gave or even who prayed for us! We have the best fans/friends in the whole world! We couldn't do what we do without all of you lovely people!
<33Torre
<33Torre
Vampires, Werewolves and Trees OH MY!
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Now here's all the pictures!
Here's Washington!
These are the only pictures we have from when we were driving through WA but hopefully we'll get some good ones when we site seeing in Seattle! Heres a picture of a town named Ritzville! it made me hungry for soup and crackers just seeing it...
And here's a sweet taco place with a fish and a sombrero! (Note..all these pictures were taken with my phone..)
Here's the boys washing off Van-go! (We just named him..)
Well that's awkward..... Hopefully she has some stuff left! Hahahahaha :)
Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my short blog!
Mucho Loveo, Torreito.
p.s. I have to remind myself that if I get a cut and I start bleeding I have to hide other wise I will get eaten by those evil vampires! BUT If a see a cute Native American with his shirt off and nice abs.. I know its a werewolf!
p.p.s. I'm not going to lie.. I thought it would be cool to go to Forks, Washington....
Blah Blah Blah (Torre)
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 |
| Hi! My name is Sophie and I'm traveling the world with my mom Torre! I'm a very shaggy dog so sorry you can't see my eyes. We are currently in North Dakota. Its my second time traveling. Last time mom lost me but then found me in someone's yard. Can't wait till California! |
And heres Josh, Luke, Lex, Me, Danny, and Mark on the Geographical Center of North America! .
I don't have much to say much right now like I already said.. but always keep us in your prayers! We can always use it! :)
Mucho Love..... Torre!!!!
Joy (Lex)
Labels:
Bright Light Parade
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A week ago, life started getting a bit more crazy. There were many things in my own personal life going on, and things just in general were not going as planned. My week filled up fast, and I knew that it was most likely going to be a bit overwhelming. I spent some time in prayer, and seeking Him out and His plans for this week. If this all happened a year ago, I would be a complete wreck right now. I would be cranky, uneasy, and definitely stressed. It's amazing, though, in just this past week of craziness, God has granted me this sense of peace and patience! Even through the things going wrong, people treating me poorly, and just chaos, He has remained faithful and has shown me a small glimpse of the bigger picture! I have been completely filled with joy, through it all! An unexplainable joy. Things that would make me a little cranky before, have not bothered me! He is continually reminding me different things. When someone cuts me off while I'm driving, He says, "Calm yourself. You have bigger things to focus on.", or when something goes wrong in life, He says, "Just trust Me. I've got it all under control." It's amazing how our God works, huh? :)
The enemy has been defeated, and my God has WON!
We'll be touring out to California and back, with stops on the way there and also on the way back. Check out our Facebook "Events" page to see if we're coming to a town near you! Please keep us in your prayers as we travel, and as we encounter new fans and friends. We have been given these gifts and talents for a reason, and that's to glorify our Lord and let Him use us to advance His Kingdom!
-Lex
These are a few of my favorite things! (Torre)
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I hope I didn’t make you fall asleep while reading this.
Hopefully I’ll have something better next time.
I have no idea how many times I even said “my favorite” hahahaha :)
Torre the borre. :)
To Speak or Not To Speak (Lex)
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In the last year or so, I have felt God tugging on my heart to start speaking. I wrestled with Him because I didn't like to talk, and I never really felt like I had anything worth talking about. I don't have a testimony that makes your jaw drop, and those seemed to be the only messages I had ever heard. The stories of a man or woman who did drugs, drank, had sex with multiple partners, and was delivered from all of those things. I thought that those were the only God-stories worth telling. God made it so clear to me though, that I have a story. No matter if it's a jaw-dropper or not, I DO have a story. He has been putting this passion for speaking on my heart more and more. He has shown me in so many ways that He has given me this life for a reason, and He wants to use it to advance His Kingdom! He has made it so clear, "They are not your words, they are Mine." and that has eased my nerves each and every time I have gotten up on a stage to speak. They are His words, not my own! How amazing is that?
Did you know that you have a story? There is somebody out there who needs to hear it, no matter what you've been through. You know, there are a lot of girls who I have mentored and talk to each and every day who don't understand why they've gone through some things they've been through, and there's only one reply I can think of to tell them, and it's the simple fact that there are going to be people who enter your life who are looking for answers. If you've been through heartbreak and God carried you through it, and there's a person in your life who is experiencing that right now, you will be able to show them how you got through it. If you had an addiction, and there's someone in your life who is struggling with an addiction, you can show them how you overcame that. If you stand for purity, and there's a young woman (or man) in your life struggling with that, and you know how to help him/her because you've been at the same place in your own life, you will be able to show him/her how to stay pure! Isn't it amazing how God works through difficult times? I am blessed and so encouraged by it! Remember, your story is worth telling.
God has great plans for your life, and the lives of the people you encounter. Let His light shine through you!
1 Timothy 1:12, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me trustworthy, appointing me to His service."
-Lex
Our First Blog!
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Here's a word from Torre herself...
So most of you should know that I don't even take myself seriously. I'm currently watching "Let's Make A Deal" while we set everything up and I lost track of how many times Lex told me to stop watching and focus. I can't though! Seeing people win cars and get zonks are much more entertaining then setting this up. But I'm very excited that we (mostly Lex) got this set up and we can share our hearts and I'm betting a lot of laughs. OH! and I want a dark brown chihuahua.
P.S. I JUST WON THE BIG DEAL OF THE DAY! Well.. kinda.. not really...
As you can see, Torre is quite the jokester, and I know you will ALL enjoy her blogs very much. We'll catch ya guys a little later!
Ps. I would like a puppy as well... just sayin!!
-Two Sisters
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