Christmas Letter 2020

Lubbers Year in Review

We started the year helping Ryan's parents move to an independent living apartment in a senior care facility in our community in February. DeeAnn's inevitable date with Alzheimer's arrived sooner than anticipated as her decline really sped up this year. Watching a wonderful, educated, adventurous, strong woman battle this disease was difficult. A few months after moving in, Earl fell and broke his hip and was out of the apartment for nearly a month as he spent time in the hospital and a rehab facility. The facility's administration made some exceptions during Covid lockdown to allow for us take turns living with DeeAnn as she could not be alone. We were all grateful to be able to be with her as we took our special shift with her. When Earl was released from rehab, they moved to the assisted living part of the building so they could both get the help they needed. Eventually, DeeAnn needed even more help and moved into Memory Care. Navigating all of these changes during COVID was a monumental challenge. We were all so sad to finally lose her in October, but yet we were grateful to see her trial come to an end. Her funeral was a beautiful tribute with many friends who made it from afar to honor her beautiful life. We continue to see Earl frequently from his window and look forward to the day when we can all visit together normally once more. 

Other notables of the year: 

I poured my heart and soul into organizing Brazilian Carnaval at the kids dual immersion school that had record breaking attendance. We had drum, dance and capoeira workshops and so many people showed up that we ran out of food. I had been told to expect maybe 200 people and around 1000 came! 

We lived through an earthquake and several aftershocks the same week that COVID shut down our school in the spring. It was surreal. I woke up to shaking, sat up and said, "Are you kidding me??!" It was almost comical to add an earthquake onto everything that was going on. Luckily we escaped any damage, but the kids were pretty nervous living through aftershocks. I was grateful they were home with us instead of at school so we could hide under the table together as we laugh/cried!

I also spent countless hours putting together what basically amounts to an 80 page dissertation proving my 10th great grandfather was a Sephardic Jew persecuted during the Inquisition and forced away from his home in the Algarve, Portugal. As a gesture of restitution, Portugal is offering citizenship to descendants of jews who were persecuted and my application is in stage 2 of analysis. I actually discovered dozens of ancestors who had been forced to convert rather than lose their lives. It has been a fascinating education in the history of Portugal and Brazil and has also led me to study the gathering of Israel with new interest and purpose. 

School for the kids moved online in March and remained that way through the Spring. It was a bit of a disaster, but we managed to survive. In the fall, they all went back to a modified in person school week. 4 days in person, one day online. There was one 2 week quarantine for Dezi and Cae as the Covid numbers at their schools began to rise just before Thanksgiving. The kids have shown incredible resilience through this crisis and we've been amazed to see how adaptable they've been throughout 2020.  

We sewed hundreds of masks to help with a massive initiative to provide masks for hospitals. 

Tiago and Anna worked hard to learn all the songs and choreography for Annie, but the musical was cancelled days before opening night. 

Dezi and Cae's bands went fully online and performances and the San Francisco summer tour were cancelled. Tiago's piano went online. Bella's violin stopped as her teacher was forced to get a different job with her orchestra scaling way back. 

Dezi got his braces off, while Tiago and Anna got braces expanders and braces on (they are so little to have braces!). 

Bella had her first BIG haircut. It is crazy that just 3 years ago, she had several patches of missing hair. Alopecia areata is such a mysterious immune disease and we are grateful it hasn't reared its ugly head again. I told her when the hair from her last bald spot finally grew to her shoulders, we could cut her hair so it would all be one length. She loved her new look! Especially with her newly pierced ears. She's growing too fast! 

We got a tandem stand up paddleboard and spent many days on the water. We are so lucky to have our little neighborhood lake where we can escape to the sounds of water, birds, frogs, insects and rustling grasses and the sight of gorgeous sunsets.

We cancelled trips to Guatemala, California, and New York State. Instead, we took a break from social distancing and went to Lake Powell with Ryan's brother's family and visited St George, Snow Canyon, Gunlock and Pine Valley with my family. 

Tiago discovered that he loves basketball and Bella's love for gymnastics has been put on hold due to Covid. Ryan and I joined the most motivating, intense gym and then gave it all up for now. Dezi is still playing soccer and his team continues to rise in the ranks as they win game after game. Cae has been focused on skateboarding and continues to learn impressive tricks as fast as he destroys shoes!     

We made puzzles, wrote songs, had quarantine dance and karaoke parties, watched Marvel movies and the Mandalorian and even made a paper mâché Grogu.

Dezi, Cae and I had fun this summer seeing our very brief performances as extras in a Book of Mormon series that we filmed last summer. Then in the fall, we were extras in The Chosen, a series about the life of Christ that was filmed in Utah. The experience was great and if you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it! Season 1 is available now, but we will be seen (we hope!) in season 2. 

Ryan coped with the privations of the pandemic by setting out to build the greatest playlist the world has ever known.  No small task.  He and his friends would build a weekly playlist and then vote on each song, with only the very best songs getting added to the list.  It all got turned into a podcast (this is what middle aged men do these days) that managed to kill two birds with one stone.  First, these friends figured out a way to stay connected despite distance and quarantine, and second, they really did build the greatest playlist ever.  Check it out...The Gilded Playlist.

Lastly, we moved. It was sudden and insane. We always wanted a house with a mother-in-law apartment over the garage. I had even been looking at new builds, but not only are prices very high right now, but we actually really like the area that we are in. Suddenly, our realtor friend let us know a sale he was working on was probably going to fall through. He called on a Friday, we saw it on a Saturday, signed the offer on Monday when the loan fell through for the other buyer and closed in under a month. It isn't our dream house and it required a lot of effort to bring it up to date and make it feel like home, but it is in front of a park and next to our best friends, which is great. Though the teens think the apartment should serve as their band hangout or the clothing store they dream of opening, we are excited to now have a rental that could serve as a help to our parents or maybe even to newlywed kids someday! 

Hope you are all doing well and let's all hope for an awesome 2021!

Christmas Letter 2017

What a year! Full of so many good things and adventures. I really thought we'd have a chance to do a proper Christmas letter but alas, you get mostly pictures instead.

All the kids played soccer this year, with Ryan coaching Tiago's team and me coaching Anna Isabella's. 4+ soccer games a week is no joke people! Fun to watch, but it made Saturdays quite the whirlwind. They are all excelling at school and we are proud we created a bunch of smarty pants around here, even if getting them to do their homework sometimes feels like pulling teeth.

Ryan continues to succeed at work. It is a great luxury to have him working from home most of the time (when he isn't traveling, that is). On the majority of days, this allows us to eat both breakfast and dinner together as a family. A true blessing!

As for me, like most moms these days, I drive a lot! I sprained my ankle this year had to take a break from dancing and exercising and learned not to take for granted a functioning body ever again! I reacquainted myself with a bit of web design as I started a little side business of selling LipSense as I prepare to open the Brazilian market someday soon. The kids think it's funny that my phone is constantly pinged with web visitors from Brazil, considering I'm about as lowkey as it comes in the "girly" department!

Scroll down for links to a few different web albums of out adventures this year, inclding Hawaii and Brasil.

If you have this link, it means we love you and miss you! Thanks for being a part of our lives. Christ lives and is there for us in our trials and our successes. Let us be the Inn Keepers that let Him in. May we all pause to feel the true Christmas spirit this year.

Love, the Lubbers


Click here to see full gallery of family portraits



We were lucky enough to be able to take the whole family to Hawaii in April. Ryan worked hard last year and surpassed his quota, which meant President's Club in Oahu. We worked the frequent flyer mile system to get all the kids there with us. We worked Ryan's hotel points to stay a couple nights at the Hilton Hawaiian village on Waikiki where we enjoyed the pools, lagoon and beach. We stayed at an AirBnbs in Waimanolo and had a great time walking to the fine white sand beach and playing in the water until the jellies started giving us some stinging surprises. We kayaked Kailua and Lanikai, spent a hot day at the Polynesian Cultural Center and did some other exploring before heading to the fancy Kahala for Ryan's work event. The pool was the best hotel ever and we had dolphins right outside our balcony in their "lagoon" (both happy the kids could see dolphins and sad they weren't in the open ocean). We ended out trip at Pearl Harbor, which was very moving. Want to see any of those adventures and more? Click here for more Hawaii Pix!

This summer, the kids and I spent 9 weeks in Brazil, getting to know extended family, friends, nature, cityscapes, food and culture. I took so many photos that I'm still not finished sorting through them! It was a great time for all of us, though some missed their beds, toys and routine more than others. It was great when Ryan joined us for 2 weeks in the middle and we were all sad to see him go. Want to see more photos like this one? Click here for photos from Rio's Pão de Açucar.

For other pix of Brazil, click here  and I'll be adding more links as I get them uploaded if you want to check back.

Familia, pra quem tiver interesso em abaixar algumas fotos, me fale e eu passo a senha pra vocês.

Links from 2016

So, I didn't get updating as much as I thought I would so here is my pathetic attempt at including a few links. I promise if you check back in a few days, I'll have a few more things up and ready. Sponsoring a refugee family for Christmas and being room mom was a real double whammy this last week. This whole year has been busy! Who am I kidding? Things got crazy 5 years ago when Tiago was born and even crazier 3 years ago when Anna Isabella joined the fam. I always think of Jim Gaffigan who said, “You know what it's like having a fourth kid? Imagine you're drowning, then someone hands you a baby.” Yep. Like that!

Click here for ballroom dancing  and rock n roll performances

Click here to see photos from Raquel's Mexico trip.

Christmas Letter 2016

Cliff Notes: Everyone is relatively happy and healthy. We adopted a dog named Cooper this year. If you want a bit more detail, feel free to read on. If not, you’ve got the gist of it. Merry Christmas and all the best in 2017!

Dezi continues to love all things soccer and Chelsea FC. To simplify family life a bit, he left the advanced program in our district to go to charter school closer to home. After worrying about leaving his classmates of 5 years, he took all of a day to make new friends and climb the social ladder. This guy has no trouble working the social scene and wooing the ladies. We’ve got a 16 year old Casanova trapped in a 12 year old’s body. Can we please turn back the clock? (Ryan’s Edit: Clearly dressing him up as an elf for the family portrait is evidence of how seriously Raquel is taking this “turn back the clock” thing.) He had his first guitar recital and has impressed us with his progress in one year. He learned salsa and swing and may start private lessons soon. To keep with tradition, he took home photography awards from the South Jordan Art Show.

Cai decided to start spelling his nickname Cae, like in Brazil, even though it makes people think it is pronounced Cā instead of Kī, leaving everyone confused how to spell his name. (Ryan’s Edit: Who could have anticipated this problem? Oh yeah...me...at the hospital the day he was born). He is doing great in his dual language immersion program and we love seeing his portuguese progress, even though it means he can intercept my coded statements intended for Ryan. He played TNT by AC/DC at his first drum recital. He quit soccer and started parkour and tumbling with the goal of learning “cool flips”. A happy unexpected consequence of his training is a pretty impressive six-pack that he will proudly show anyone who asks. I’ll let you decide whose genes he got that from. (Ryan’s Edit: Clearly he didn’t get it from me, but I take pride in my doughy physique.) He also learned salsa and swing and came home with a photography award from the Art Show.

Tiago continues to love playing soccer, especially with Ryan as coach. (Ryan’s Edit: At this age level the coach runs around on the field with the kids, which gives me a unique vantage point from which I can hear parents demand Pele-level performances from their 4 year olds like complete psychopaths. Good times!) Tiago’s aggressive “try, try again” attitude resulted in countless goals and celebrations. He started piano and has impressed us with his note reading skills and ability to keep time. In addition to preschool 2 days a week, he is doing a Waterford program at home that tested him as already reading on 1st/2nd grade level. We’ve loved seeing his progress and confidence! He is Bionicle aficionado who works independently to build his complex creatures. Lastly, he teaches his parents patience as he deals with his daily bouts of anxiety and desire to control everything. There are no tuck ins, drop offs or goodbyes without a ritual of everyone having to say “Promise to love you forever and ever. Stay safe.” on repeat, followed by an onslaught of questions detailing exactly how long the separation will be. (Ryan’s Edit: Sounds cute, but by the millionth time you’re researching straight jackets for kids on Amazon.)

Anna Isabella loves the idea of playing soccer on Tiago’s team with Coach Ryan more than the actual game time. She spends a fair amount of time holding the coach’s hand and asking to sit out. After watching Tiago “get” to go to preschool for a year without her, she finally started this fall and just loves going to the same school as Tiago. She marches right into class with a happy attitude every time. She is Miss Independent and even likes to leave the house to visit friends or the park on her own, often leaving her mother in a panic. She loves to color, dress up, and play with her toys. (Ryan Edit: ...and smother our new dog with unwanted full-body hugs.) She refuses to wear “scratchy” dresses and “cold” jeans and takes her socks off whenever she can.

Raquel led a remodel of our main floor to keep us from spending a lot more money on buying a new home. The transformation was a success and we love the style of our new living space. (Ryan’s Edit: That last sentence seems plucked straight from an HGTV commercial.) She spent more time getting involved with the International Rescue Committee and helping refugees from war torn areas of the world resettle in Salt Lake. The biggest thing she did was go on a trip to the Mexican Riviera to go to a Spanish school and do some adventuring with her friend. She “accidentally” dropped her phone in the ocean on day 1, limiting check-ins with the family, and thus allowing for a more guilt-free travel experience. (Ryan’s Edit: Let the record show that I kept the family alive for 10 days and the police never had to swing by to help me track down Anna. I’d like to thank both grandmothers, Mac & Cheese, and Netflix for their contributions. Couldn’t have done it without them.) It was her first time away from the family reliving her nomadic traveller days and she wonders why it took so many years to do it!

Ryan found himself squarely in the throes of middle-age this year. He found his first gray hair, lost 35 pounds after adopting a no-sugar diet (Raquel Edit: Then promptly put 20 back on when he ditched the diet and resumed his love affair with Chick-Fil-A), and conceded defeat to male pattern baldness by shaving his head (Raquel Edit: He’s not bald!). He’s continues to drive his emasculating purple prius despite the siren call of a midlife crisis sportscar. Seeing AC/DC in Vegas with his brothers was a 2016 highlight. He’s been with the same company for almost 10 years now and these days, when he’s not on the road, he works from home. The time he saves on the commute allows us to have family breakfast and dinner on most days, and the littles absolutely love getting to see him at lunch. Despite being a Utah Jazz season ticket holder he dreams of taking Dezi to London to watch their beloved Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge.

Life is challenging and good. Love, The Lubbers

Anna Isabella's Blessing

Welcome Anna Isabella!

Here are some photos of Anna Isabella's first 2 weeks. She is an angel, is she not? And how loving are those big brothers? They adore her and can't get enough hugs, kisses and snuggles. I'll need to post a lot more, but life with 4 kids is no joke so forgive us if we are a bit slow!

Christmas break in St George

The boys loved looking at their new Star Wars popup books on the drive to St George and Tiago spent his first time with a DVD players.

The cousins had a fun time on Christmas Eve #2 with all the goodies from Vovo, Tia Laura, Tia Beatriz and Tio Nelson, Tia Neusa and cousin Elisangela and Ricardinho. What fun to have so much family visiting from afar! It was great to spend a few days with all of them.