Category Archives: Utah

Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Child #5: Cumorah, Child #6: Lily Mei, Child #7: Logan, Family, Family Life, Holidays, Homeschool, Parenting, Photography, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Toddlers, Travel, Utah

Christmas Card 2025

December 31, 2025 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

2025 was a year of both highs and lows for our family.

Some days felt full of momentum and celebration. Others days were busy rushing from one place to another getting kids where they needed to be and or callings done at church. We are reminded that the lows aren’t something to endure through, they’re often what make the highs recognizable in the first place. Life rarely happens in a straight line, and this year asked us to trust God more than the outcome.

And in the middle of all of it, kids grew, dreams expanded, routines shifted, and we found ourselves grateful not because everything was easy, but because we were doing it together.

Micah (14) had a Worlds kind of year. His First Lego League team won best in state and advanced to Worlds in Houston, Texas which is a once in a lifetime experience for FLL kids. Only the top 1% of FLL teams get to go Worlds which makes it an olympic like event for STEM kids. Our whole family, including the grandmas, traveled to Houston and watching him compete at that level was super exciting. Micah now goes to high school part-time, takes college-level classes online and spend the rest of his time working on The Hive which is one of the best high school robotics teams in Utah.

Quentin (12) grew at least six inches (we stopped measuring because it felt impossible 😅). With the height came maturity, confidence, and a new season of independence. Quentin’s FLL team called B^4 is coached by May Bo. They also made it to state and scored #12 in the robot game. Quentin is a scientist at heart who loves physics and any type of scientific learning. He is mastering the song “Maple Leaf Rag” on the piano.

Emily (10) stepped into homeschooling and private tutoring this year. She was awarded the Utah Fits All scholarship which truly allowed her to bloom. Learning at her pace, in her way, has been a gift and a reminder that kids thrive when education fits them, not the other way around.

Jacob (8) started 2nd grade and LOVES going to school! He found his groove in the SALTA gifted program and with his friends. This year Jacob also chose to get baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’s a really great kid who loves to read all day long.

Cumorah (6) is officially reading like a pro. We love seeing her discover confidence through words. May Bo decided to keep Cumorah at home and she goes to a study group with her friends. We also have a home school co-op that has helped our home school journey wonderful. We have made some really great kids this year.

Lily Mei (4) continues to be strong-willed, independent, and completely sure of what she is capable of. She keeps us on our toes and teaches us daily lessons about determination and boundaries. She loves learning her ABCs and is as cute as can be!

Logan (1) is finally talking a little and even singing sometimes. He’s true to form, already thinking like a little engineer. He studies how things work, takes them apart (sometimes successfully), and narrates his process like he’s solving a very serious problem. He’s the most chill kid e we have ever had!

As for May Bo and Dallin… same old, same old. Building things, fixing things, juggling schedules, and trying to be present to our kids.

Our pediatrics practice continues to grow steadily, and this year we’ve had more conversations than ever with families worried about rising healthcare costs, overwhelming insurance deductibles, or decided to go uninsured.

Through Direct Care Pediatrics, we see firsthand how often families slip through the cracks, unable to afford access to care, feeling dismissed, or simply exhausted by the politics and complexity of the healthcare system. Nearly every day, we hear stories from families who delayed care or stopped seeking help altogether because the healthcare system doesn’t work for them.

Because of this, our clinic officially became an affiliate with Zion HealthShare, a healthcare cost-sharing alternative that many families don’t realize exists. For the right situation, it can cost about one-third the price of traditional insurance. It also pairs well with a cash-pay and the direct care approach.

If you know anyone in the U.S. who is stressed about the rising cost of healthcare, uninsured, or simply looking for more options, we’re here to help. Send people our way! We’ve learned a lot over the years on how to navigate healthcare and how to effectively live a cash-pay life with kids. We’re always happy to share what we’ve learned! 🙂

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

With love,
The Hubbards

PS. This Christmas Card this year is designed by Emily who is a budding digital artist.

Here are our past years Christmas Cards:

Autoimmune, Babies, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Child #5: Cumorah, Child #6: Lily Mei, Child #7: Logan, Family, Family Life, Holidays, Homeschool, Parenting, Photography, Pregnancy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Toddlers, Travel, Utah

Christmas Card 2024

December 24, 2024 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Reflecting on 2024
It was far from easy, but we had a lot of fun and continue to see the guiding hand of God in our lives every day.

Micah (13) is thriving in his hybrid school experience. He’s taking his first AP class, 10th-grade Secondary Math II Honors, 9th-grade English, and is even enrolled in SLCC—all while being an awesome 8th grader with 8th-grade friends! He attends school half-day to participate in history, creative coding, and a highly ranked robotics team. This year, we let Micah travel to New Jersey for a national robotics competition, where he got to see the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. He also attended two Young Men’s camps: one with our home ward and another with the Chinese ward.

Quentin (11) is having a blast on his robotics team, which is coached by May-Bo. He’s excelling in 6th grade, juggling seven classes with seven teachers—a big switch from elementary school! He’s already completed 6th-grade math in half a year and even took first place in his gym class pickleball tournament. Quentin has lots of friends at many different schools and continues to be a social butterfly. As always, he has a special charm when caring for the little kids at home.

Emily (9) is in 3rd grade and learned how to rollerblade this year. Now, she’s eager to learn ice skating and skiing! She’s working on improving her drawing skills, made new friends, and loves going to Classic Skating (just like Dallin and May-Bo did as kids!). Emily enjoys playing with her younger siblings and says Draper City Park is her favorite.

Jacob (7) started 1st grade and LOVES going to school! He has an amazing teacher and is doing so well. Jacob also learned to rollerblade this year and is constantly on wheels—we can’t seem to stop him! He’s full of energy and keeps us all on our toes.

Cumorah (5) is ready to start kindergarten, but unfortunately, she has another year to wait. May-Bo homeschools her every morning, and with how tall and bright she is, she might just skip kindergarten next year. Cumorah is a homebody and actually loves staying at home.

Lily Mei (3) is developing her strong, independent personality. Her memory is incredible. When May-Bo lost her phone, Lily confidently declared, “Mommy, your phone fell down into the big couch.” Sure enough, it was there—something even Find My iPhone couldn’t help with because the phone was dead!

Logan (1) is crawling like a pro but isn’t quite ready to walk. He’s the most curious and calm baby we’ve had—such a joy!

May-Bo stays busy keeping up with the kids, chess club, and robotics. After having gestational diabetes with Logan, her fasting blood sugars remain high despite a very low-carb diet and being at her lowest weight since high school. She feels better than ever eating this way, but her New Year’s goal is to exercise more to lower her A1C and fasting blood sugars. She’d love to have another baby but hopes to avoid insulin… so we’ll see! (An Easter egg for those of you who read this far. LOL!)

Dallin has been working hard to grow his pediatrics practice. He started Direct Care Pediatrics in June 2023. What began quietly is now ready to grow. It’s a hybrid clinic serving Utah families virtually and Salt Lake County locals in person. For now, Dallin is only doing virtual and home visits, but once the clinic remodel is finished, it will be located at 1434 E 9400 S #100, Sandy, UT 84093. His goal is to use technology to make healthcare less political, more accessible, and more affordable for everyone. With Uber Eats and grocery delivery so popular, now you can have the doctor and labs come to you, too!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Love,
The Hubbards

Here are our past years Christmas Cards:

Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Child #5: Cumorah, Child #6: Lily Mei, Children, Family, Family Life, Holidays, Homeschool, Indianapolis, Landscape, Mid West, Photography, Temples, Travel, Utah, Washington DC

Christmas Card 2022

December 21, 2022 Hubbard's Cupboard 5 Comments

We sold our amazing house in Indiana. It was located in the best neighborhood and we were all so sad to leave. May Bo was able to do the whole sale by herself. It was easy since the market favored the seller back at the beginning of the year. We packed everything up and we decided to do moving containers. It was much easier than driving a moving truck with all the kids.

Now we’re back in Utah! We’re hanging out at Popo’s house or the house May Bo grew up in. May Bo’s mom is so nice to take us in during a time when the housing market is not favorable for buyers and the cross country move was very expensive. We see ourselves staying here for the foreseeable future so we started on some remodel projects that is going to take a lot longer than expected. Half the house is down to studs so we are all cozy living in three bedrooms. One room is for May Bo’s mom, one room for Dallin & May Bo, and one room for all the kids! It was a really rough transition at first but we have all seem to have gotten used to it. It has actually made bedtime easier when all the kids have to go to bed at the same in the same room.

May Bo’s brother Aaron got married to Oliva and that was a huge highlight in our year.

Micah started middle school this year. He is the best sport dealing with all the little kids in his room and is really looking forward to having his own room one day. Micah got into the First Lego League team at his school. The tryouts were hard and only a few students got on the team. Middle school has been a really good for Micah and he has met some really great friends this year. He also started back up with swimming but we are still looking for a piano teacher for him.

Quentin has been utilizing the gift of the Holy Ghost in his life. The elementary school that we started out with here in Utah was not working out for Quentin. May Bo really wanted Quentin to stay at the school but after praying about the situation, Quentin decided he needed to leave the school right away. It was really good he did because the situation at the school only got worse and worse. Quentin actually didn’t mind being the new student again and is really enjoying his new school. He probably got one of the nicest teachers ever and he has made a lot of friends.

Emily started 1st grade. She loves her teacher and classmates. Her teacher reads with Emily everyday and she has grown leaps and bounds with her reading. She started to go to art club. Emily started piano lessons this year.

Jacob started his second year of preschool this year. It is a lot shorter than his school last year so he spends most of his time at home. He loves going to school and has had zero problems going to school. Thank goodness! He started swimming lessons this past summer and asks to go back everyday. He is an energy ball. Since Popo cooks for us almost everyday Jacob told us we live at “Popo’s Pizza and Steam Bun Restaurant.”

Cumorah is amazing at singing. She turned 3 this year and every one thinks she’s 5 or older. We started a TikTok for all her cute candid moments of singing. She is ready to start preschool, but not old enough to attend so we started preschool at home since she already knows the whole alphabet.

Lily Mei started walking! She can take 3-5 steps on her own. She still thinks crawling is a lot faster.

Dallin is working hard and long hours at Primary Children’s and is adjusting to be back in Utah. He loves to read Brandon Sanderson to the kids and work on remodel projects whenever he is home.

May Bo is having way too much fun making over 50 TikToks and Reels on Facebook. She used to make all the movies for her senior class in High School back in 2008 so this has been really fun for her to make movies again with much better and faster technology! This may be the first year she has taken more videos than pictures.

One huge miracle that happened to us this year is that Dallin’s sister gave us her 15 passenger van. We have already gone on several adventures with it. We have lots of camper van remodel ideas for this car and we’ll see if we actually get any time to make it happen in 2023. The kids love the van life. HAHA!

We decided to use Quentin’s 4th grade national park pass last weekend to go take a picture for this Christmas Card at Bryce Canyon. We hope we can see many more of the parks this coming year!

Here are our past years Christmas Cards:

California, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Family, Family Life, Holidays, Homeschool, Indianapolis, Iowa City, Mid West, New York, Photography, Pittsburgh, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel, Utah, Washington DC

Christmas Card 2018

January 8, 2019 Hubbard's Cupboard 8 Comments

Hi Everyone!

This is a little belated… OK may be it is very belated but we have been relaxing and enjoying our time at home for Christmas and New Year. We were just trying to catch up on life and sleep. We have been traveling a lot since October for Dallin’s residency interviews. We decided to home school our kids for three months as we traveled coast-to-coast. Dallin is in his fourth year of medical school which means he is entering the “National Resident Matching Program“. Every fourth year medical student, who decides to pursue a practicing career in medicine, needs to complete a minimum of three year residency. These medical students apply across the country for a residency in their desired specialty. Some people interview at only a few programs while others interview at twenty five programs or more! It really depends on the specialty they choose. Dallin decided to interview at twelve pediatric residency programs. About half of the programs he applied to have a special Physician-Scientist track for MD/PhD’s. Dallin has currently finished 9 out of the 12 interviews. After the remaining interviews, we will complete our match list and submit it. The programs also rank all their applicants. March 15, 2019 is “Match Day” when graduating medical students nationwide will open their match letter to find out where they go for residency. It is a fun and stressful time filled with uncertainty and much excitement. We are so grateful for all the family and friends who have helped us these last few months! We are humbled by everyone who has message us, taken us in, helped us when we lost our luggage (… Don’t worry we eventually got it back!), given us advice, babysat the kids on the road, filled our callings at church, fed us, housed us, and kept us going. We have traveled approximately 14,700 miles by plane and roads. We couldn’t have made it this far without you guys! Thanks so much!

Love,

The Hubbards

Dallin, May Bo, Micah (7), Quentin (5), Emily (3), and Jakey (1)

PS – 2018 family video is still in the making!

Here’s our past years Christmas Cards:

Architecture, Family Life, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel, Utah

Ogden Temple Re-Dedication #ogdentemple #ldstemple

September 21, 2014 Hubbard's Cupboard 6 Comments

The Ogden Temple Re-Dedication is my fourth temple dedication I’ve attended since getting baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints only six and a half years ago. I guess it’s a great time to be a member of The Church because of the plethora of temples being built and the blessing of attending temple dedications!!!

Every time I attend a temple dedication, I just can’t be more grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! I just want to shout to the world that “This church is true!!! I know it’s true!! It really is!! It’s amazing!!! Jesus lives and loves you!!”

The minute I walked into my church house, where the temple re-dedication was being broadcast live, I felt so much peace come into my heart. I felt like I was actually inside a temple! For those who don’t know, Sunday Church services was canceled today in our area for the Ogden Temple Re-dedication. All members of The Church over the age of eight could attend the dedication if they had a temple recommend.

I went to the first session. I had so many favorite quotes but I’ll resist to only sharing my FAVORITE.

President Monson said “God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives” (paraphrasing James Barrie, in Laurence J. Peter, comp., Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time [1977], 335) then he added “Temples provides roses in every season of our lives!”

It’s so true! Every time I’m struggling or have an unsettled heart. All I have to do is go to the temple and I can feel peace again.

At the end of the temple dedication they always sing the song “The Spirit of God”. The first line of the song is The Spirit of God like a fire is burning! My heart was burning with the love of God and I was filled with tears of joy. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so much of the Holy Ghost in one setting.

I think as my years add up in The Church. I get used to having the Holy Ghost with me all the time and take it for granted. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father providing me with this opportunity to feel the Holy Ghost in abundance. It reminded me of the excitement of being a new convert.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and we build temples so we can learn how to become more like Him. Jesus Christ is the source of peace and happiness to this world. We need Him and He wants us to go to His temples so we can be with our families together forever!!

——————————————————————————–

Here are the pictures I took of the Ogden Temple at the open house at the beginning of September. Enjoy!!

That shinny light in the sky is the moon!!! 🙂

Architecture, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel, Utah

Star Effect Photography on Religious Architecture

November 19, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 6 Comments

Alright, I’m going to continue our virtual temple tour with the St. George Utah LDS Temple. There wasn’t very good lighting that day because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! So here’s a photography tip, to get good LDS Temple pictures you need diffused lighting which is either: a cloudy day, sunrise, sunset, or twilight. Well, because I didn’t have any of those, I decided to just play around with the “star effect” also known as the “starburst effect“.

To get the star effect you need to point your camera right into a light source. So an obvious light source is the sun. Other light sources could be head lights on a car or a lamp post.

Next, you need to crank up your F number on your camera to create a small aperture. Aperture is measure by F/# so the bigger the F number the smaller the aperture. You can do this by being in the Av mode which is the aperture priority mode on your digital SLR camera. You don’t need a nice lens or anything you can just use the lens that comes with the camera.

These two pictures below were taken at F/22.

If you can get a small light source you can use a smaller F number. This picture was taking at F/8.

On a side note, we believe in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormon or LDS) that these temples are “Beacon[s] to the World.” A beacon as define in Merriam-Webster online dictionary is: “a strong light that can be seen from far away and that is used to help guide ships, airplanes, etc.” If you have every seen one of these LDS Temples at night, you would know that these temples glow. You can see these temples from far away. We believe that temples are beacons because temples draw people nearer to God and Jesus Christ.

Anyways… if you want to learn more about LDS Temples please visit my other posts about temples!

BTW you don’t have to be a member of our church to take pictures of our temples. So, please come take pictures of our temples! Have you ever taken pictures of LDS Temples? Please share!

Family, Family Life, Landscape, Photography, Utah

Donut Falls

August 10, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

We hiked to donut falls. It’s a really easy hike if you start at the Donut Falls Trail Head. It’s only .75 miles until you get to the waterfall. Then you have to climb the waterfall to to see the donut. I highly recommend the hike for little kids. We went with a 7, 5, 3, 2, 1, 0 year old kids and we seem to all make it to at least the waterfall. Then we left most of the smaller kids with grandma and grandpa so we can make it up to see the donut. Don’t forget to bring the donuts!