Our CHRISTMAS letter...

Mele Kalikimaka to all of our family and friends! We hope that everyone is enjoying the Christmas season… we are definitely enjoying the opportunity to slow down the pace of our normally busy schedule and focus on the birth of our Savior.

The highlight of 2009 has definitely been the arrival of our son. Matthew Kai Uyboco joined our family on June19th, and it is hard to believe that he is already six months old. He is such a pleasant and content boy… a real joy to everyone in our family. He has not started to crawl, yet; but he can roll like a champion. In a matter of seconds he can move from the middle of the room and get himself trapped under the couch or Christmas tree.

Eliana is a very proud “big kid” now, and she enjoys telling us all the things that four year olds are capable of doing. She is teaching us a lot… so far we have learned that four year olds no longer need naps, they can eat candy whenever they want, they do not need to go to bed until their Mommy and Daddy go to bed, and they can pretty much do whatever they want! Although her stubborn independence is frustrating at times, we cannot go fifteen minutes without laughing at some of the things she comes up with. Recently she has decided that she is a Musketeer. She runs through the house fighting the bad guys as she shouts, “All for one and one for all!” She is a wonderful sister, and it is so cute to watch the two of them giggle and laugh at each other… they will always get along like that, right?

We managed to squeeze in some trips this year as well. We spent some time in California this summer for a much needed vacation and to be a part of Jon’s cousin Alina’s wedding. Eliana was talking about going to Disneyland and meeting the Princesses for months before our trip, so our trip to Disney was extra special seeing it through her eyes. Kai got to meet his great=grandma (Tai ma in Chinese) while we were there. Since he looks just like his Daddy did at that age that was an extra special time for Tai Ma. In the fall we loaded up our new mini-van and headed up to Annapolis for Jon’s10 year reunion at USNA. We were able to meet up with old friends and tried to enjoy some Navy football,.. but we had to leave early because of some rain. We spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with Suzanna’s family. Eliana really enjoyed playing with her cousins. There are 4 little girls that are all around the same age, so you can imagine the fun that they had together. What’s neat is that they get along surprisingly well… hopefully that will last.:)

For Christmas this year we are staying put right here in Danville. It is really strange for both of us to not be travelling. This is only the 3rd Christmas that we haven’t travelled in all the years we have been out of our parent’s homes, but we are looking forward to the special memories that we will make as a family.

Another highlight of our year was running in and completing our very first Half-Marathon. Jon, being the wonderful supportive husband that he is, agreed to start training right along with Suzanna so that we could do all of our long runs together. We felt pretty confident heading into the big day as we had trained on the course and done well. There was a 3-4 mile stretch of hills on the original course that we had already conquered on a long run, so we felt good. Then we had several days of heavy rain before the race that flooded the course, forcing a course change. The 3-4 miles of hills became 13.1 miles of hills… Yikes! It wasn’t the race that we had hoped for, but WE DID IT; and crazy Suzanna is looking forward to her next one… on a much flatter course, of course.:)

Please continue to pray for both of our children. Our constant prayer is that they will accept Christ into their hearts at a very young age, and that they will live their lives with a definite purpose and focus on God. Pray for us too, that we would continue to grow closer and closer to our Lord and closer to each other. We are very thankful for each one of you and how God has used you in our lives. May He bless you and strengthen you as you draw closer to Him today and throughout the coming year.

Warmest aloha,
Jon, Suzanna, Eliana, and Kai

It's about time...

I posted some recent pictures.:) Here are a collection of pictures over the last month or so. I wish that I had better ones of Eliana and her cousins, but it is incredibly difficult to get 6 kids under aged 5 and under to all stay still at the same time for a picture... one day, right?!:) Enjoy the pics!