President Hinckley's Viewing

I had the opportunity a few minutes ago to walk over to the conference center from work to go to President Hinckley's viewing. It was amazing. I'm not usually a huge fan of viewings, and Paul already told me he didn't want to go, so I decided to go with a co-worker. It was like being in the temple: everyone was so reverent and respectful. When we finally got up to see him, he looked so peaceful. The Spirit was so strong. It kind of felt like the times when President Hinckly would enter a building and immediately the whole congregation would stand up and watch in respect and silence. There were hymns playing in the background softly, and there were beautiful bouquets and cards from the quorums, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I was glad that I could be there. It was truly magnificent.

President Gordon B Hinckley - June 23, 1910 – January 27, 2008

20 Years ago....

I was about to turn 11 years old and in love with Kylie Minogue, she played the lovely Charlene Mitchell (above, as she was in 1987) on the TV show 'Neighbours', I watched the show everyday to see what her and Scott (her husband) were getting up to. Then, much to my intial surprise, she released a record - the mighty, and only slightly annoying, 'I Should Be So Lucky'. Who would have thought that 20 years later I would still be following the antics of Kylie. So in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Kylie hitting the Number 1 spot in the UK with I Should Be So Lucky (the first record I ever bought), I thought that I would post her new music videos. She has two songs coming out simultaneously - one in the US and UK, 'Wow' - and the other in Europe and Australia, 'In My Arms'. They are both taken from her, frankly poptastic, album 'X '(due for release in the US in Feb). If you fancy a little bit of fun and a happy little ditty, play the videos below. Enjoy! Hasn't she changed!
Update - the videos stopped working and are thus removed.

Baby Dennis (sorry - Edison)

I just wanted to post this cute picture of when we were looking after Edison a few weeks ago. FYI - Georgie could not have been more jealous - she wouldn't get off of Anna for bones nor the opportunity to go outside and search for the black cat that frequents our yard and leaves little 'gifts' for us (that Georgie tries to eat).

P.S. the title of this post refers to the fact that when Edison was blessed the other week, Darren and Alison's Bishop thought that Edison's name was in fact Dennis (which if i'm being honest I prefer - but don't tell Alison :)

It snowed!!!!

So we got a little snow at our house the other day and, although I generally hate shoveling snow we actually had fun clearing the driveway this time - mostly down to the fact that Georgie was being very funny. She has quite short legs and as such, she had a hard time walking around (because the snow was so deep) which ultimately was very funny to watch. Anyways here's some pictures of us and monkey girl enjoying the snow! One interesting fact about snow shoveling - my very first snow shoveling experience was live on TV! I know very cool eh? I was working at the Utah Food Bank and KSL (TV station) wanted to do a story about how the Food Bank recruits volunteers to shovel driveways for seniors and people with disabilities, anywho when KSL wanted to do the story we couldn't get any actual volunteers to go, so I went. So if you happened to be watching KSL news about 2 years ago and thought you saw me in behind the reporter (I believe Susan was, probably still is, her name) shoveling snow - then you did - it was me. Anyways that was quite a dull story so I apologize - enjoy the pics!!!

Edison & Maia, again

Hee hee, they're so funny!

Notes from an insomniac

I'm really frustrated lately because I tend to only sleep a couple of hours every night. By the way, this is Anna speaking. Paul generally sleeps soundly. I would know, since I'm awake to notice. Anyway, sleep deprivation can do wacky things and make you think & do all sorts of dumb things. Here are a few of the "interesting" ideas that I've come up with during the wee hours of the night, most of them involving some type of money-making scheme:
1. I always seem to think I can compose & arrange music. One night I thought of a really beautiful arrangement of the Christmas hymns "Il Est Ne" and "Silent Night". When I was sane again (awake) the arrangement didn't seem to work as well as it did in the middle of the night in my head.
2. I always seem to think I should take up rollerblading. Don't know why.
3. Sometimes I think of how great it would be to start some kind of band, and who I would recruit to be in my band. It hasn't come to fruition yet. Want to join? Send me an application & an audition tape.
4. I'm such an entrepreneur in the middle of the night. I can always think of great businesses to start when I'm tired. One time my sister had this idea of buying a huge box of hawaiian leis to sell at high school graduations. She ended up short $100 and stuck with a couple hundred leis. In the end she sold them on ebay. At least I've never done that!

The sleep deprivation seems to really kick into high gear during the afternoons, where I can be seen running into filing cabinets, staring at the wall or adding nonsensical posts to our blog. If I'm really tired I end up laughing a little too much or doing impersonations of unsuspecting co-workers. The gals at work enjoy the impersonations. Any great sleep deprivation stories anybody? Add one to the comments.

Another Edison pic

So here's another picture of Edison, because he's really cute and we clearly don't have our own cute pictures so we steal pictures of other peoples' babies.

New Year - New Resolutions

Well 2008 is here and underway, I have been so busy with work that I haven't had time to do a post in while, luckily Anna managed to put some pictures up of Big Edi and Maia for you all to see.
Anyways like I mention 2008 is underway (as I am sure you are aware) and hopefully this is going to be a great year for us, as tradition dictates we have set some resolutions and I thought that posting them on our blog would be a good reminder and a good way for us to declare our resolutions so that we actually keep on top of them!
So the resolutions for the Leggett's are (and I speaking for just me and Anna here, I don't think Georgie has quite the same goals as us - her's are probably concerned with somehow procuring more food for herself):

1- read the standard works - lofty, I know, but we have a schedule!

2- exercise more - we now own a 'Gazelle' (some kind of 'leaping' machine - google it), in addition to our treadmill, so we can exercise together - that is assuming that I don't fall off the treadmill - as I did twice last week (in my defense I was sick - 'ill' for you British folks - ...)

3- write in our journals more regularly - Anna bought us each a lovely journal for Christmas - also please note I wrote 'more regularly' rather than a specific amount - so the frequency of writing is open to interpretation!

4- have a baby (whatever way we need to - aside from stealing) or be pregnant by the end of the year!! - we seem to be progressing so fingers crossed!

5- go to England - more of a wish than a resolution but still....

Anywho those are our resolutions, so it'll be interesting to see what comes of them (number 4 better happen or else...). We'll keep y'all up to date!

Nephew Edison's Blessing

Edison was blessed last Sunday and we had a little shindig at our house afterwards. Check out Edi's tux!



Big Edi and his proud parents



Almost the whole family l- r Jacob, Elissa, Alison, Darren, Edison, Anna, Paul, Tracy, Anna's Mom - Valerie, and Anna's Dad - Greg (missing - Joey, Vicki and Maia)



Four generations, Edison - Alison and Darren - Anna's Parents - Grandma Thompson and Grandma and Grandpa Van Den Berghe

Niece Maia

Here's a cute picture of our niece, Maia, along with Toby the dog. Maia enjoys eating (if you can't tell by the state of her shirt) and walking.