Hubbard Happenings: 2018

Dear family and friends,
It is a wonderful tradition to share with each other things about our families each year. We enjoy receiving letters and cards from many of you. We have had a good year and are thankful for our family and friends. We are grateful to God for this life and the gospel of hope that He gives us to help us through the natural difficulties we experience.

Caleb (age 8, 3rd grade) loves learning. He asks lots of questions, reads about topics such as weather, foreign countries, and animals. He likes to quiz us with geography questions, and he participated in a school spelling bee. He learned to sing a song that includes the names of all the countries on earth. He practices the piano almost daily and composed a song for it. He is cheerful and makes friends easily, so naturally he has a lot of fun at school and Cub Scout activities.

Spencer (age 11, 6th grade) started learning to play the alto saxophone this year. He has fun with the middle school beginning band and practices a few songs on his own. He loves building models and Lego vehicles. He earned his Arrow of Light award as a Cub Scout and joined the Boy Scout troop in August. Spencer and Andrew participate in a youth model railroad club and enjoy working on their trains at home.

Andrew (age 13, 8th grade) plays the trombone with his middle school symphonic and jazz bands. He regularly rides a mountain bike in the foothills near our home with a group of friends. This spring, he completed the cycling merit badge by riding 22 miles on a network of trails and forest roads. He goes camping every other month with his Scout troop and has seen a lot of New Mexico. He has gone to the Bisti Bad Lands, a large desert with few plants but beautiful rock formations and petrified trees.

Ruth (age 15, 10th grade) loves to read and write. She organizes parties with her friends and participates in church youth activities. Ruth climbed Wheeler Peak (13,161 ft) with a group of her friends. She works at the Kumon Learning Center part time. She is taking AP world history to get a head start on earning credit toward a college degree. She works hard to keep straight As in school.

Ruth in a dress that Becky helped her make and

reading in her favorite spot in her room.

Neal enjoys helping the children learn and explore. He eagerly explains their math homework and sets up experiments for their science projects. He had a great time going with Andrew and Spencer on Scout trips. One was a ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad combined with picking up litter along the tracks. He greatly enjoyed climbing mountain peaks with Andrew, his brother Dallin, and friends. This was somewhat of a catch-up year because he reached seven peaks, including Wheeler Peak and adjacent Mount Walter with Ruth. This has also been a great year for backpacking: Ruth's trip involved two nights camped just below tree line, some of the Scout trips went far from vehicles, and there was a family fishing trip in the Cruces Basin. It was delightful to accompany the children on bike rides and see them grow stronger. The whole family camped in southeastern Arizona during Thanksgiving break with their cousins, the Christiansons; it was a great dutch oven cook-off. These are some recreational highlights of Neal's year. Most of his time is filled with routine work, errands, chores, and repairs; it helps to have these special events to look forward to. Neal especially likes to study the word of God with the family each evening, sing hymns, and pray together.

Becky works at caring for the family and home. Her love and devotion are exemplary. She enjoys keeping the yard looking nice and did a great vegetable garden this year. She works on family history and sewing projects when she finds the time. She volunteers at the elementary school library. She serves in the Primary and Cub scouts.

We are thankful for this time of year when we can focus on our Savior and remember his life. We are profoundly grateful for our knowledge of Jesus Christ, that he was born, lived and died for us. We hope all of you can find peace this year as we focus on the Savior and remember him always.

Love,
Becky, Neal, Ruth, Andrew, Spencer, and Caleb

I am listening to Christmas music and can see our decorations for the season and realize I haven’t written in a long time. Last Saturday we enjoyed going to a Stake Christmas activity. They had beautiful music, I especially liked a bell choir, pretty decorations and treats. We enjoyed being there. We came home and the kids wanted to stay up and decorate our tree. It was a fun activity together. It is a happy time of year.

Caleb got ahold of the camera and had some fun pictures

the kids working on the tree

We had a busy month of November. Ruth was involved in her dance instruction class. She ended up enjoying it more. Last week they had their final event with a dinner/dance. She enjoyed being able to dance and be with her friends. I think it was great she could learn some basic dances, like swing and waltz, and it will be something she can use for a long time as she attends dances. Ruth is busy with school. She stays up last doing home work and gets up early for seminary. She works hard. She also enjoys time with friends. One Saturday evening her friends got together and they made Christmas sugar cookies and decorated them. She also babysat one evening. She was called to be the Mia Maid class president and has helped plan activities for the girls to do. She has been involved in planning girls camp for next year. She will be a youth leader and went to a meeting about it. She is excited about girls camp again.

Andrew is active with his bike rides, even on cold days, scouts and home work. His home work load has increased and he finds he doesn’t get it done before dinner every day any more. He is a good student. He enjoyed going to a birthday party for Miles and hanging out with his friends. Last Saturday Andrew, Ruth and I went to the Road Runner food bank and served there. We were sorting donated produce. Things that were good to eat we put in boxes and the bad went in bins that will be traded to the pig farmers for meat. It was good to go serve.

Spencer likes to serve each day by helping the custodian at school clean up the tables in the lunch room. He likes that the custodian gives him a candy or cookie for helping. But I think he enjoys being a part of something. Spencer likes playing with his friend Jonathan. They get together when they can. Last Saturday they were together all afternoon. They walk home from school together and sometimes talk at the corner where they split for awhile. It is good he has a good friend. Spencer enjoyed going to a party for his friend Caelum. He has been friends with Caelum since we moved here in 3rd grade.

While Spencer was with the birthday party group at Hinkle Family Fun center, Neal took Caleb around to use some of Caleb’s passes for activities there. Caleb loved having time to play and that was nice Neal took him. They came home happy but tired. Caleb enjoyed a field trip to a science demonstration at the Pope Joy hall down town. I went to the school for an open house in his gifted classroom. I was able to see things they work on there and talk to the students about their projects and activities. I also had some good parent/teacher conferences for him. Both his teachers expressed what a great student he is and how social and polite he is. I am glad he enjoys school. Last week Caleb went to a party for his friend Fox. We know Fox’s grandparents, the Jones in our ward, and the party was at their home. Caleb thought that was great. Sister Jones is my partner teacher in primary to teach Caleb’s class. She talks about her grandson Fox in the lessons and Caleb has gotten to be friends with him through school this year. He enjoyed the party. Last month at Pack Meeting Caleb was awarded his Wolf Rank. He has enjoyed the cub scout program and was excited to finish his Wolf. Last night we had a good den meeting. We are working on the adventure in Coins this month. The boys enjoyed learning a little about coins last night. I am glad that it went well. I try to plan interesting things for them. Caleb participated with the school spelling bee. He represented his class in it and made it through four rounds before misspelling a word. He was happy to do it. He was so confident and didn’t act nervous at all. I enjoyed going and watching it.

Caleb receiving his rank and putting the pin on me

A blurry picture of Caleb at the spelling bee

I enjoyed going to a Relief Society Super Saturday activity. I helped with a service project and visited with some other women. We had a nice lunch and a speaker. It was a good activity and I am glad I could go.

Our big event in November was Thanksgiving. This year was different for us. We decided to get together with Neal’s sister, Holly, and her family. We met half way at the Coranado National Forest in the south east corner of Arizona and went camping. I was surprised that we weren’t the only ones out there and the camp ground was full. It was great to see Holly’s family and we enjoyed visiting with them. The kids had fun playing and exploring around the camp ground. We brought some bikes with us and Andrew and Spencer had fun riding around and making some trails to go on. Different groups went on some short hikes and we all enjoyed the pretty place we were in. The fall leaves were fun to crunch in. I hadn’t thought about it getting dark so early and since we were in a canyon it was dark by 5:00 each night. The kids were all tired and wanted to go to bed by 7:00. Then because it was cold we spend almost 12 hours in bed and got going about 7:00 in the morning when it was starting to get light. It was cold. I tried to go prepared with warm gear but it was hard for me to be outside all the time. We camped from Wednesday to Saturday that week. For Thanksgiving we made a nice dinner. Neal and Holly had planned it out what each family would bring and we had a good turkey dinner. My favorite was the hot rolls Holly and Karl did in dutch ovens. Neal cooked a boneless turkey in a dutch oven and I did some dressing. It was all so tasty. It was nice to be with family. But, I don’t think I want to camp in the fall/winter again.

it was a pretty canyon

gathering around the fire was the favorite activity

Caleb and his younger cousins went on a hike/exploring time with me and Holly

Last Sunday we had snow. It was so pretty to wake up to. Everything was white. We got the kids moving and dressed and took pictures to put on Christmas cards. The kids had fun making some little snow men too. The snow was all melted by the evening. It never stays long here. It has been cold and definitely winter time is here. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you can enjoy this season remembering the great event of Christ’s birth.