Chinese New Year Card 2014

January 27, 2014

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！

 

Unfortunately, we are not in the habit of sending out an annual Christmas card, though we have enjoyed many cards from all of you, our family and friends!  This year, we decided to send out a quick link to our letter giving you a little update on our lives!  

The time has passed quickly now that we’ve been back in California.  This July, it will be three years that we’ve lived in Redondo Beach.  That was the total time that we spent living in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where we lived while Reuben was finishing his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.  In that time, there has been a lot of change, as well as becoming true wimps when it comes to cold weather!  (Hang on there Minnesota friends with your subzero temperatures!)

Reuben started his own private practice, SunLiving Health and Wellness  (www.sunlivinghealth.com ) and deals with all the pressures and adjustments of his own business.  His practice entails pain management, acupuncture, prolotherapy, as well as cosmetic procedures, Sunrider herbal supplements, and a fitness program.  If that wasn’t busy enough, he also manages new projects in Sunrider and also travels with the business often.  At church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as LDS or Mormon) he is involved in the Elder’s quorum as a secretary, (and the founder of the men’s organization “Movie Night”) as well as a faithful home teacher, where he visits some of the families in our congregation on a monthly basis.  Besides that, Reuben has explored many different hobbies since moving back here.  While he dabbled in Aikido and a different form of karate, he’s still faithful to his weekly Judo practices.  He’s also responsible for getting the entire family involved in archery and we’ve enjoyed outings as a family to the SouthCoast Achery range, which happens to be in a beautiful location overlooking Catalina Island and close to the tidepools in Palos Verdes.  

Although Katie feels like she’s always doing something exciting, sometimes there isn’t always much to show for it as a mom with three kids!  She was able to do a fitness challenge with Reuben in the first three months of the year.  Both of us lost a lot of body fat and enjoyed healthy eating habits and great muscle mass.   Now she is pregnant with baby #4, a boy, due in the middle of May, which means we’ll have a great opportunity to do the program again (Fitness Brigade, yeah baby!!!)  much later this year.  Katie is involved in the youth program at church and works weekly with the Young Women, in teaching Sunday lessons, Wednesday night activities, and helping with the secretarial duties.  Katie has enjoyed being part of two book clubs monthly and also “reads” a great deal of her books through Audible, while she’s doing something else, like organizing closets or chauffeuring kids.  Really, that is what she seems to be doing most of so let’s get on with the kids!

Ariana (almost 7) is at Chadwick school in the 1^st grade and is doing well.  She has been involved in many activities this year, including jazz dance, gymnastics, Chinese dance, ice skating, art club, piano lessons, girl scouts, church activities, and several Chinese classes a week.  She’s a busy girl!  One of the biggest adjustments this year has been the introduction of homework.  Although it’s only about 10 minutes a day, it has totally changed Mother and daughter’s concept of “free time” at home.  Yes, and we know that it will only continue to evolve in the next several years!  Ariana has totally given up on “toys,” at the ripe age of almost 7, and only really likes art projects and technology, besides playing with siblings.  She is often in charge of whatever new games, crafts, or forts that go down at home and directs her siblings on their respective duties.  

Corban (4) is still a jolly optimistic guy most of the time.  He’s really into building things with legos or magnet creations or just playing in the mud.  Corban is always in the search of new bugs, animals, or plants and every yellow flowering dandelion that we pass he’ll pick and hand to his mother.   He never misses a chance to watch while Mom cooks or grills.  While he’s already been going to “preschool” for 3 years in one shape or another, this year is the big preparation for kindergarten as he attends Town and Country Nursery School and also Ni Hao Chinese school.  Town and Country has a great playground and he is often caked in mud from head to town when he is returned to us parents.  Corban has had some great accomplishments this year as he’s tried new things in gymnastics, soccer, T-ball, ice skating, Chinese classes, and Hip Hop.  One big accomplishment has been in ice skating.  The first term that we were at the rink with Ariana, he didn’t participate but Mom urged him to try when the next term arrived, even though he didn’t like ice skating in the slightest.  The first lesson was full of tears, but now he’s skating better and better each week.  The best thing was that he was able to see how much he had improved himself, after only a practice or two, and his big sister urged him to “Never give up!!!”

Our baby girl Elena will not be the baby of the family soon.  She is turning 2 in a week and is already a participate in the mighty “terrible twos” group.  Elena is not the hardest baby as she eats and sleeps well most of the time, and she is finally somewhat adjusting to the fact that things will be alright, even when Mom isn’t around, though this is a hard concept for her.  She has recently accomplished a big feat, in learning how to climb out of her crib and is also an expert on making a mess.  But she is also quite sweet and knows when her siblings would appreciate a hug, while not always freely giving them.  As the youngest, she can be quite feisty and defensive, but also likes to play by herself and others.  Elena loves animals, babies, swinging outside, walks, books, and just hanging out with Mommy.  

This year we’ve been able to do a lot of traveling.  We’ve braved jet lag traveling 3 times over the oceans with our three children and managed to visit more than 10 countries this year.  I feel it’s safe to say that while we may thoroughly enjoy visiting famous ancient ruins, eating exotic food, and shopping, our kids are not big fans.  Thank goodness all three of those trips we were with family members while Reuben was also traveling and doing business with Sunrider.  Two of those trips were also cruises so the kids might not have actually hiked up to the acropolis, but had a great time hanging out in the kids club on the ship.  Besides the visiting several countries along the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, we also spent Christmas in Taiwan and New Year’s in Hong Kong.   Besides that we’ve also been able to visit family in friends in Utah, South Dakota, and Washington State.  I feel it safe to say that we will probably not be traveling as much when we have our fourth little bundle of joy!  

There are a lot of great things to be looking forward to in this new year!  We hope that this year the Horse will carry you to success and happiness!

-Reuben, Katie, Ariana, Corban, and Elena Chen

Christmas Card 2009

Dear Family and Friends, Christmas 2009


We’ve had a great year in Saint Paul, Minnesota! We’ve been blessed with health and happiness but most of all, another addition to the family. In April we welcomed our first baby boy, our second child, Corban Jao-Yong Chen. Time has flown the second time around; on Christmas day he’ll already be 8 months old!

Reuben has continued to practice Judo about twice a week. He likes the intensity and strategy of Judo; he’s also able to incorporate his rehabilitation medicine training into practice as he helps both his teammates and himself with injuries from the sport. Reuben continues to practice acupuncture as well as some other alternative therapies like cupping therapy. Now in his third year of residency, he’s spent the last half of this year working at the Veterans Hospital in Minneapolis, which is one of the four largest VA’s in the US and has a large regional traumatic brain injury center and spinal cord injury center treating young vets returning from the Middle East. Reuben served in the church first in the Elder’s quorum and now in the Young Men’s and scouting program.

Katie spent the winter being pregnant, which helped keep her warm during the cold weather. She’s also been taking Chinese classes at the University of Minnesota and enjoys having an intellectual outlet and teaching the kids Chinese too. As the Primary music leader at church she is always thinking of fun ways to introduce songs to Children. After Corban was born, she trained for a triathlon which she completed near White Bear Lake in September. Along with training, she and Reuben have been doing a new intensive exercise program, P90X. At the State fair they both entered the Marines pull-up challenge and while Katie did pretty decent considering that she had just had a baby a few months prior, Reuben totally dominated. He did 20 pull-ups, the max number for the challenge. We’re proud of him!

Ariana, two years old but getting close to three, has continued to go to Chinese preschool a couple of days a week. Her parents also speak to her in Chinese. Although she still has a bit of confusion over language, she is learning all the ins and outs of being bilingual and loving it. She especially loves the Chinese Dora the Explorer who speaks in both Chinese and English. Ariana is an active child, usually hoping or running rather than walking from here to there. She started a kinder class at Circus Juventas, a youth performing arts circus located in a permanently built big top around the corner from our house. The trapeze, trampoline, and the balance beam are her favorites and she is a natural! Her major accomplishment this year happened after a year of training- she decided one day herself to be done with diapers and hasn’t gone back since then. Ariana is her mother’s little shadow, always willing to be a “helper” which can be both endearing and annoying. Her new little favorite person is her little brother who has become a tough little cookie from all of her tight hugs.

For Corban we can truly say that he is just a sweet joy to his parents. Though having two children now is much more difficult just as expected, with such a good baby around it hasn’t been too bad yet. However, now that Corban has entered the puppy stage- getting around everywhere on all fours and chewing on everything in sight- we can tell that things are going to be getting a bit more complicated around here! He’s a good fast eater and has already about reached the 20 lb mark, a feat his sister accomplished at twice his age! Corban also loves his sister and always gets a smile on his face and laughs from her many tickling attacks and grappling hugs.

Though we live far from both of our families, we’ve been able to make a few visits to see them, attend weddings, meet new babies, spend holidays, and also go to Katie’s 10 year high school reunion. It’s been something of a multistate parade as we’ve visited Washington, Utah, California, and even Hawaii this year with family. We made perfect timing for our Hawaii trip- we left in January and skipped out on the coldest week of the Minnesotan winter (40ºF BELOW Zero with the wind chill). We were enjoying over a hundred degree temperature difference in warm Oahu with most of Katie’s family. Now living in the Midwest, Nauvoo Illinois, a historical site for our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is a lot closer and our family was able to go for all of our first times and even ride on an covered wagon pulled by oxen.

For the most part it has seemed like a normal year but busy year as we have become accustomed to life here in Minnesota. Now with two children, we feel like we’re growing up and getting used to family life. This year with Christmas it’s been even more fun as Ariana is started to understand holidays and how things work. One thing that we are trying to teach her is the true meaning of Christmas, about love, peace, and kindness, traits of our Savior for whom the holiday is named.

We hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Reuben, Katie, Ariana, and Corban Chen katiebchen@yahoo.com www.chenschristmascard.blogspot.com

Christmas Letter 2008

Dear Friends and Family, 1 January 2009

We hope that you are enjoying a happy new year and had a great holiday season. Although this may be the last Christmas letter you receive this season, we still wanted to give you an update on our growing family.

This has been a year of change for the Chen household. We started out this year in Irvine where Reuben was officially working as Dr. Chen for his internship year in internal medicine. We moved in June to a great townhouse in Saint Paul, Minnesota where Reuben is working in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Minnesota residency program.

Besides moving, this year has brought a lot of other fun adventures. Reuben and I were still able to go to the Sunrider Convention in Anaheim for a weekend in July. Afterwards I went to the Bleazard Family Reunion in the middle of Idaho. I was a bit nervous about camping with Ariana, who was about 18 months at that time but Ariana had an absolute blast. She is a social little girl and loved being with so many people and the freedom to get dirty.

In August we were able to go to the Beijing Olympics with Reuben’s family and attended the opening ceremony. We had a lot of fun and I have no doubt that it was the best show that we have or will see ever!

In September we took a quick weekend trip to farm country in Katie’s home town, Pasco Washington. We were able to see Katie’s cousin Kara’s wedding reception and visit with family and friends. When we left Minnesota for the trip, it was summer. When we came back just days later, fall had arrived and there was no turning back. It was a beautiful season and the forest right behind our house turned colors of red and yellow. However, the drawback of fall was that winter was coming. And come it has!! We’ve had to buy a totally new winter wardrobe including our family’s big Christmas present this year: new boots for everyone!!

Reuben- Was happy that when he turned thirty year old this year that he was officially no longer a student. He worked long hours in Irvine and sometimes the whole family was together just for a few minutes a week. It was good training in a boot camp sort of way but we could all see that his confidence and knowledge in medicine increased. His schedule is much better now that he’s practicing in his specialty and he enjoys his time with family and in his church calling in the Elder’s quorum presidency. Reuben continues to practice Judo and work out and has already gone to the ER twice since we moved to Minnesota for sports related injuries. The upside is that he is able to really connect with his patients!

Katie- Did her first Olympic length triathlon in Las Vegas this year and ended the race sun burnt but happy. She decided to continue taking Chinese classes at the University level, starting off this year at UC Irvine and now at the University of Minnesota. She likes to continue to learn and being active and has been challenged in her calling as primary music leader at church. Being a mom has become a lot of fun with a toddler- but with a lot of messes to clean up! Things aren’t going to get any easier- we’re expecting a baby boy in May!

Ariana- Just when you thought that she couldn’t get any cuter, she does. Her favorite things are juice, books, baths, the alphabet song, shoes, dolls, hugs, and of course, Mommy and Daddy. Although she has a lot of toys, it seems she can be occupied forever with a doll and a blanket while she tells her “baby” over and over to “sleep” and “be good” in Chinese putting it to bed. Ariana parents speak to her in Chinese and she also goes to a Chinese preschool but she talks quite a bit in English too. Overall, she’s a good girl who just likes to have fun!
We are grateful for you all and hope that you enjoy a fabulous year!

The Chens- Reuben, Katie, and Ariana

Christmas Card 2007

Dear Family and Friends, December 2007
This year has brought our family a lot of great changes and blessings. Our biggest blessing of the year came to us on February 16 when we welcomed our new little daughter Ariana Wan-Juen Chen. Ariana is a beautiful baby and everywhere we go, she gets compliments on her beautiful eyes and delicate features. Ariana is a great cuddler, a fast crawler, and well on her way towards walking.
Just a month after Ariana was born, our family attended the “Match Day” ceremony where we found out where Reuben “matched” for his residency. After more than a dozen interviews at locations throughout the U.S. and months of waiting, we were pretty anxious. In the end, Reuben matched to stay here at UCI for his first year in internal medicine and at one of his first choices at the University of Minnesota for his three years of specialty training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). We are excited because the program in Minneapolis is very good, but we’re nervous about the winter weather! Regardless of the cold, we continually hear great things about the Twin Cities area and everyone we’ve met who’s lived there has loved it. We’ll miss living so close to Reuben’s family but hope for some visits from family and friends!
In June both Reuben and Katie graduated with their advanced degrees- Reuben from UC Irvine medical school and Katie with a masters in Food Science from Chapman University. Before graduation, Reuben was also able to be certified in acupuncture through Helm’s Medical Institute affiliated with UCLA. It required a ton of memorization and practice but his Chinese medicine internship the previous summer in Taiwan really gave him a leading advantage.
July brought about the start of Reuben’s internship. The first couple weeks of the average 80 hour work weeks were grueling but since then he has seemed to adapt surprisingly well. He has a long shift every fourth day where he gets home long after Ariana goes to bed (and sometimes he works all night until noon the next day) but on the days where the whole family is together, we try to make the best of it. We’ve enjoyed this last year in Southern California to the fullest and have gone to beaches, amusement parks, and family outings.
For Reuben’s first vacation in October and celebration of our third anniversary, we went back to Katie’s mission area in Southern Spain and joined Reuben’s parents for a couple days for a visit in Paris. Some people called us crazy for taking a trip like that with a baby, but Ariana was a perfect traveler. She loves to be on the go and we all had a fantastic time together. In fact, Ariana didn’t really bring any stress to our trip, it was the fact that we had lost our luggage and didn’t have any of our things for the entire vacation! After we bought some new stylish Spanish clothes, things turned out great. Katie really enjoyed seeing friends and the whole experience made her mission seem less like a dream. Paris was gorgeous and we were fortunate to see so many incredible sights in just a few days.
Our family has been blessed this year. Katie is a full-time mom and enjoying all the time she gets to spend with Ariana. She is still studying Spanish and Chinese, running, and also did her first triathlon this year. Besides spending long hours in the hospital, Reuben is also able to exercise, practice martial arts, and spend time with the family. Reuben fulfilled another incredible goal this year- he received his Black Belt in Judo- which was eight years in the making. (He also has a black belt in Taekwondo).
We are so happy that we’ve been able to share our time here in Southern California with many of you. We’ll miss you as we’re traveling on to the Twin Cities area next June, but hope you know that you will be in our hearts and prayers always. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!The Chen Family- Reuben, Katie and Ariana. www.chenschristmascard.blogspot.com

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

The San Diego Zoo

At the San Diego Zoo in December