Christmas Wishes

Matthew, Amy, and Baby Girl Felton would like to wish all of our family and friends a very Mele Kalikimaka all the way from chilly Honolulu.

A lot has happened with our family over the past year. This time last year we were still getting settled into our new home in Hawaii and working on making new friends. Hawaii was quite a culture shock from what we were used to in the Pacific Northwest, but we are so glad to be here in paradise.

At the beginning of this year I started a job as a part-time teller at First Hawaiian Bank. Apparently in Hawaii you have to have way more education or experience than on the mainland and my 7+ years in the banking industry didn't really help me find anything I was happy with. So, we decided I should quit my job and go back to school. I am currently working on earning my bachelors degree in dental hygiene at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Matthew has had a very busy year at work and we don't see much of an end in sight to the business in the near future. Matt attended quite a few schools over the year including a ton of training to become a Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure Officer for his ship the USS Reuben James. Matt was also gone for three weeks in November to attend a Surface Warfare Officer school in Newport, Rhode Island. I wasn't able to accompany him to Rhode Island because of my school schedule. Matt's ship has been extremely busy the past month working seven days a week preparing for the big Navy INSURV inspection. It was a very tiring month for the sailors and families especially with the holidays around the corner, but Matt's ship passed the inspection and now they are getting ready for a deployment coming up at the beginning of the year.

Our most exciting news of the year is that we found out in August that we are expecting our first baby. We are so very thrilled to start a family. We found out that we are expecing a baby girl earlier this month and we can't wait to hold her! We are getting ready for her big debut on April 24th, 2010!

We miss all of our family and friends that we are away from for the holidays and we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!