A family on the verge of chaos!

On Sunday, February 19, 2012, Korey’s father, Ralph Klier ended his journey here on earth and began that unimaginable walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in Heaven. Since that day I have thought about Ralph often. I think about his strength, his courage and the example he set through the life he led. While we were in Texas for his memorial service, his daughter Kristi asked for my help with the obituary. I think what we came up with was fitting, but after the memorial service I still felt like something was missing. That there had to be more to the story… so way to help others see the legacy this man left behind for generations to come. I’ve tried several times to write my thoughts down, but it just wasn’t working. I’ve told the story over and over in my head, but couldn’t find the right voice. Then, this morning in church Pastor Benji Kelley started a new series on Miracles: Encounters with Christ.

Today’s sermon was taken from Mark 4:35-41 where we learn about how Jesus had the disciples take a boat across the Sea of Galilee. After Jesus falls asleep in the stern, a powerful storm sends waves crashing over the sides of the boat and the disciples wake him to ask “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38) Of course Jesus cares and he calms the waters asking his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40) As Pastor Benji talked about this storm in relationship to the storms in our life, I couldn’t help but thing of Ralph. Here was a man who battled leukemia, a heart transplant and lung cancer. Talk about storms. I’m sure there were others, but these are the ones I know about that stood out to me. Pastor Benji talked about how we find ourselves in the midst of our own storms and how sometimes it was our own bad decisions, sometimes it was Satan or a broken world who put us there; then again sometimes it is even God who places us right in the middle of the storm. In our human response we often spend most of our time begging God to to do a removal job and take away our storms, but if fact God wants to do an improvement job instead. Obviously Ralph’s bad decisions didn’t cause these medical problems, but were they Satan-made or God-made? And why would God put one man through so much? Then we came to this passage:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith developes perserverance. Perservance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-4 

After hearing that passage I looked over at Korey and said “That’s your Dad.” Ralph stared each of his battles in the face and turned to God, giving God complete control of the situation. Was he upset, scared, worried for himself and his family? I’m sure he was. I know I would have been. But he always remained calm, so sure that God would take care of everything. His faith never wavered as he battled through his storm. It was as if he had reached that place of maturity and completeness that we read about in James and now he was ready for his walk with Jesus. If there is only one thing I could pass on to my children about their Opa, it would be his faith. I hope they have the kind of faith throughout their lives that Opa had.

One of the best conversations I had was with Korey’s stepmom, Rita, about Ralph’s last hours. It seemed that for the better part of 17 years, since he was first diagnosed with leukemia, Ralph and Rita had been preparing for this moment. Once the leukemia was in remission, they had a few good years before being hit with a massive heart attack that left him on a heart & lung machine and a week later, with a heart transplant. Now 9 years later it seemed that lung cancer would be his final storm. But Ralph took it all in stride. He tried the treatments and survived for several months with few symptoms. Then, in early February, Rita found him in a diabetic coma. That seemed to be the first sign that the end was near, but he rallied and came home the same night. Rita shared with me how on their last night together, she sat with him for hours helping him clean up. He seemed to be be having a good night. He was looking forward to seeing Korey, his first born, and spending time with him as it seemed that their time together was always to short. On Sunday morning the Hospice nurse came over and helped him bathe and resettle in his hospital bed in the family room.  Once the nurse left, Ralph and Rita snuggled in the bed and enjoyed watching Joel Osteen together. Rita said that Ralph napped and they talked. He was so happy that Korey was arriving soon. They talked about how proud he was of his kids and the lives that had made for themselves. They prayed for the kids and for the future, whatever it held. Prayer was their weapon, the one thing that allowed them to persevere and weather every storm. Rita told him it was after 11 and Korey’s flight was on the ground. He should be with Kristi and Aaron on the way to College Station now. Rita told me things were so quiet and peaceful as she lay there holding him and then he just closed his eyes and was gone. Through all of his illnesses, Ralph had always told Rita that he was surrounded by doctors and nurses to take care of him, but the only thing that gave him peace was knowing that the kids were all there for her. Now it was like he was persevering once more, waiting for Korey to get to Texas so that the kids could rally around Rita through his final storm and she wouldn’t be alone.

Korey told me he was afraid his Dad was gone to be gone before he got there, no matter when he arrived. Either he would be gone or Korey would go, visit and come home because things would look good, and Ralph would pass before he could get back to Texas. Knowing that Ralph died peacefully at home with Rita, gave Korey comfort. He knew that his father loved Rita and she had always loved him in return. It was a storm Korey could have faced with regret and with guilt, but instead, like his father, he faced it with faith, knowing all was as it should be. Ralph died in the presence of his two great loves, Rita and Jesus Christ. Ralph was no longer in pain, no longer suffering, and forevermore, he would be watching out for all of us from heaven, only a heartbeat away.

So when we heard about miracles, storms, faith and perseverance today, I couldn’t help but think “this is the message…. this is what was missing all those times I tried to write about Ralph.” My kids are young and I wanted to capture Ralph for them, not just in pictures, but in words to describe exactly what his life stood for and how important the example was that he set for all of us. I want them to trust in God just like Opa did and know that even when God throws us right into the middle of the storm, if we trust in Him there were surely be nothing but sunny skies on the other side of the storm.

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Here’s the official obituary:

Ralph Ewald Klier
September 16, 1940 – February 19, 2012

Ralph Ewald Klier, of College Station, Texas, passed peacefully into God’s loving arms on February 19, 2012. A celebration of Ralph’s life will be held at 2 pm on Sunday, February 26, 2012 at Peace Lutheran Church in College Station with a reception to follow.

Ralph was born on September 16, 1940 in Fredericksburg, TX to Ewald and Josephine Klier. He graduated from Texas Lutheran College with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He worked as a CPA and retired from Texas A&M University.

Ralph found a lasting happiness with Rita Ruff German. They were married on September 24, 1982 and spent the next 30 years living and loving together. God and family came first and foremost for Ralph. His faith was strong and obvious to all who knew him. Having survived a fight with leukemia in his 50s and receiving a heart transplant when he needed it most in his 60s, he knew that it was God who made miracles happen. Ralph knew that these second chances allowed him the the added time that he had with his family, the chance to meet his children’s spouses, and to know and love his 10 grandchildren. He was looking forward to saying thank you for the miracles he received in person. This is giving the family much comfort at this time as they know that Ralph is now in heaven, free of pain and suffering and he is enjoying an unimaginable walk with our Lord. May others recognize and follow his example of humility, and his self-giving love so that they too may experience that walk one day.

Ralph is survived by wife, Rita, and his 4 children: Korey Klier, of Durham, North Carolina, wife Amanda, and their children, Gabriel, Ethan, Elizabeth, and Zachary; Kristi Mueller, of College Station, Texas, husband Aaron, and their children Megan and Matthew; Brian German, of Caldwell, Texas, wife Steffany and their children Tyler and Ashley; Hillary Ramos, and her children Anthony and Kaylee; mother-in-law, Rae Ruff; former son-in-law Anthony Ramos and his wife Shauna, all of Bryan, Texas. He is also survived by his siblings, Curtis Klier of Arlington, Texas and wife Kathy, Karen Klier, Gary Klier and wife Brenda,  and Janet Jung and husband David, all of Fredericksburg, Texas; sister-in-law Nancy Carruthers and husband Bill of Whidbey Island, Washington, and numerous nieces and nephews.

He is preceded in death by his parents, his sister Tracy and his brother Wilburn.

Ralph and Rita have been long-time active members of Peace Lutheran Church in College Station where he often helped teach Sunday School. Ralph was also an avid deer hunter and especially enjoyed the camaraderie he had while relaxing at the cabin in Fredericksburg with family and friends. He could sit for hours in a deer stand watching birds, rabbits, deer, and other creatures foraging. Ralph took delight in the fact that his children shared his interest in this hobby and enjoyed sharing the rewards from his trips from a stocked freezer throughout the year.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Hospice Brazos Valley, an organization that took great care of Ralph in his finals days and that Ralph has supported for years.

Hospice Brazos Valley
502 W. 26th Street
Bryan, TX 77803

It’s amazing how technically savvy kids are these days.  There are a lot of games on my phone and Korey’s iPad that Gabriel has to explain to me. Of course I am guilty of giving him my phone to play one of the games I have installed for him when I just need to keep him busy for a few minutes; whether he is sitting in the grocery cart while I grab a few things or to keep him quiet while we wait for dinner when dining out. When Gabe was little and Korey or I would have to take a business trip, we would Skype with him every night so that he could see whoever was away. Now with the iPad and Google Talk, we use our cell phones to have “face-to-face” time when we are away. It has even come in handy with Opa and Oma in Texas. Since Opa recevied his iPad for Christmas, Korey tries to call him regularly on the iPad’s Facetime application so that he and Oma can see the kids and get to talk to them. It’s much easier to keep 2 and 3 year olds engaged when there is a video and not just the telephone. Here’s what our session on Saturday afternoon looked like:

Lined up to talk to Opa & Oma.

Making faces...

Ellie getting some one-on-one time.

The kids love talking to Opa and Oma this way. They get even more excited when Kaylee and Anthony are around to chat with them too. If this is where communication is today, I can only imagine how I will be chatting with my grandchildren!

In late September, Korey’s father and stepmother called with some bad news. Korey’s Dad, Ralph, aka the Miracle Man, had been back to the doctor because he couldn’t shake the cough from a summer case of pneumonia. Turns out, it wasn’t pneumonia after all, but a rare form of lung cancer. Because of Ralph’s previous medical history and the fact that this was a rare form of cancer without a lot of cases for reference, the doctors had no prognosis. Korey chose to take that as good news. That there was a possibility that it would be treatable and he could overcome this too. For those of you who don’t know, Ralph is already a  cancer survivor having battled leukemia in his 50s and going into full remission. Then just over a year after we married we received an urgent call from Rita, Ralph’s wife. Ralph had gone in for a routine catherization but he already had a blockage so severe that the procedure caused him to have a massive heart attack. He was being airlifted to a specialized hospital in Austin. He survived the heart attack, but was placed on a heart & lung machine and needed a heart transplant. Amazingly enough it took less than a week. Ralph’s new heart was a gift from God and as such he has really taken care of it and himself. Now with this new round of cancer, there were so many unanswered questions about how to treat cancer without causing problems for his heart by interfering with one of the rejection meds he is taking.

The more Korey and I thought about this situation it became clear to us that we needed to take the kids and go visit Ralph soon. After a little research on flights and timing with Korey’s planned vacation weeks and the school schedule we decided to head down to Texas for Thanksgiving. We arrived on Friday, November 18 on an early morning flight. The kids were amazing. They weathered the trip well with no breakdowns.

We spent an enjoyable week visiting with family and letting the kids get to know their “Opa & Oma”, aunts, uncles and cousins. Just to give you an idea of how many that was, here’s the complete family photo we had made while we were there:

The entire Klier family

We also had our family picture made:

Our 2011 family portrait

and Ellie & Zach’s 2-year-old portraits:

Ellie & Zach

all 4 kids:

Ethan, Ellie, Gabe & Zach

and one of Opa & Oma:

Opa & Oma

It was a great week filled with family and fun (aside from Gabe’s stomach bug) and it was interesting to me to see a different Thanksgiving celebration than what I grew up with. I learned some neat new tricks for keeping meats fresh and moist when preparing them early and some new recipes for low sugar recipes for diabetics.  The kids had a blast being the center of attention and we all got to spend some quality time with Oma & Opa. We feel blessed to have been given this time with the family and hope and pray we can do it again soon.

After playing flag football with a neighborhood friend over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays and learning that there’s no tackling involved, Gabriel decided that he would like to give the sport a try.  Korey found out that his buddy Evan was playing with an I-9 Sports league on Sunday afternoons and signed Gabe up too. Last Sunday was their first practice/game. The way I-9 works is that you spend 2 hours once a week on the field. The first hour the coaches have the kids run drills and teach them actual skills. The second hour the kids are split up and they scrimmage… their version of a game. As they reach the older groups it looked like their might actually be set teams, but we couldn’t tell for sure.

It was pretty cold here last Sunday, so Korey, Gabe and Ethan bundled up and headed for the football field about 1:30 while I let the twins nap and enjoyed the warmth of my house. When Ellie, Zach and I headed over for the game at 3,  I grabbed my camera hoping to catch a bit of the action. Here’s a peek at what I found:

Ready to go...

At the end of the first half, Gabe came over to see us and seemed disappointed. Korey asked him how he liked it so far and he said “it’s not what I expected. I never get the ball.” We told him it looked like everyone would get a turn, and he should head back out there and do his part for his team. A couple of plays later, Gabe got to carry the ball. Needless to say, he really liked that part.

Gabe steps away from a touchdown. That's his buddy Evan on the ground behind him missing the flag.

The picture I missed here was just before this move where Gabe had his hand back behind him warding off the other team and covering his flags. The day ended on a positive note and Gabe is looking forward to more football. Said he might even want to play tackle football next year like his older cousins.

Here I am almost 2 months after Ellie and Zach’s 2nd birthday and I am finally finding time to post. Yes, Ellie and Zach turned 2 on November 6, 2011. We celebrated with a party for family and a few friends on Saturday November 5. This was their first birthday party since last year we returned from Orlando on their birthday. Going to Disney World isn’t a bad way to spend your first birthday, but Ellie and Zach certainly seemed to enjoy their second birthday a lot more.

First the kids spent some time playing in the bounce house we bought for Ethan’s birthday party back in May. We set it up in the garage again, although this time there wasn’t a threat of rain, just colder temperatures. By keeping the garage closed we didn’t have to worry about coats or bare feet, since the kids couldn’t seem to keep their socks on either.

The Birthday Girl on the bounce house slide.

The Birthday Boy's turn.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes. Ellie and Zach sang along. They love singing Happy Birthday.

Ready to blow out the candles...

Ellie & Zach really enjoyed the cupcakes. Ellie especially had a sweet tooth. She finished off her entire cupcake while Zach was more focused on the icing.

Zachary decided on red icing for his cupcakes and had it ear-to-ear by the time he finished licking it off the cupcake.

Ellie with her cupcake. She picked her favorite color "pink" for the icing on half the cupcakes.

After opening lots of nice gifts, we thanked our guests and tried to get the house in order. I have to admit that having the party at home is a lot cheaper than going out, but it sure was nice after Gabe’s bowling party not to have to clean anything up. With the house somewhat in order, we had to try out a few of our gifts.

Zach in his puffer vest from Nawnie & Paw-Paw and his Mickey ears.

Ellie in her puffer vest from Nawnie & Paw-Paw and her Minnie glasses.

All in all our second birthday was a huge success!

On Friday night after a trip to Portrait Innovations to finish our Christmas pictures (I’ll post those soon!), we decided to go to the mall to visit Santa and have a quick dinner. We were amazed to see that there was no line when we arrived at 6:30. As the boys and I hurried down the escalator to get in line, we found that the reason there was no line was that Santa was going on his dinner break. After finding out that he would be back at 7:20, we hurried back upstairs to the food court for a quick bite of dinner. We got back in line at 7:15 and only had 2 families ahead of us. All of the kids were excited to see Santa and were talking about their wish lists. When it was our turn, Gabe and Ethan hurried over to sit with Santa, Ellie and Zach had to be coerced. They refused to sit on Santa’s lap, but agreed to sit on the arms of his chair beside Gabe and Ethan for a picture. They managed to speak a couple of words to him but that was it. Of course, that was a big improvement over last year when they screamed and cried.

So two days into December, we have our picture with Santa for the year and we have avoided the long lines that arrive later in the month. Hooray!

Just as I promised American Airlines I would do in my letter of complaint, I want to share with you the stress-filled experience my husband and I had with them last Friday in Austin. First let me say that our our trip to from RDU to Austin on Friday, November 18 went without incident. Everyone on our flight and ground crews in RDU and Dallas were fabulous. They were courteous, friendly and quick to lend a hand as we traveled with 4 small children. Our experience on Friday, November 25 was totally different.

Our day started out great. We said our goodbye’s to Opa and Oma in College Station, dropped off a box to ship home and stopped by Chick-fil-a for some drinks for the road.  Oddly enough we ran into traffic in area of Texas where Korey says he has never seen back-ups before. It appeared that someone ran their car off the road and rolled it over (maybe they fell asleep after early Black Friday shopping?). So, now we are running about 30 minutes behind our planned arrival time when we got to the rental car return. After unloading everyone, packing up the car seats and practically running to get to the baggage check, we get there and have to wait in another line. To save time, I went to the AA kiosk and paid our baggage fees while Korey waited in line. Then we decided I should take Gabe, Ellie and Zach and get in the security line so I could go find them some lunch. Korey and Ethan would check the bags and catch up with us.

As I get through security, Korey calls me back because we used my credit card to pay for the bags, & the ticketing agent wouldn’t let him check them even though he was on the same record locator and had his boarding pass. Then the agent, Joy, refused to let me take my compact double stroller to the gate. This is a small side-by-side stroller that folds flat & weighs less than 20 pounds. AA.com only said strollers had to be under 20 lbs. Another agent verified the weight when I ask what had changed since the previous Friday when we traveled from RDU to Austin with the same stroller and absolutely no issues.  Joy refused to budge. She said American’s new policy went into effect October 1 and all double strollers regardless of weight had to be checked. She was rude & belligerent. I admit I was very upset at this point and told her that this was ridiculous. This meant we would need to carry our 2 year-old twins to the gate, between gates in DFW & to baggage in RDU with no stroller, while keeping up with a tired 3 year-old in a single stroller, a weak 6 year-old who was recovering from a stomach bug & our 3 small carry-ons that were necessary to keep the kids entertained on the flight and provide dry clothing should the need arise. Normally the carry-ons would easily fit under the double stroller, now we were stuck carrying them too or paying additional baggage fees and not having activities for the kids for over 3 hours of flight time. We needed to eat before our flight & during our DFW layover. We needed to be able to move quickly & efficiently. Joy then told us that this was a TSA policy. because it wouldn’t fit through the scanner…. uh… that doesn’t fly since we made  it all the way through a week before and I was already going through security when I had to come back to the ticket counter. At this point Korey had gotten so frustrate that he had taken the boys and got in the security line. I started that way with Ellie and our double stroller because I had Zach and Gabe’s boarding passes and he wouldn’t be able to get through security without them. Joy continued to yell at me as I pushed the stroller toward security. At this point I had had it with her. I turned around and said, “I understand screening is behind me, but my husband needs the boarding passes. You need to calm down.” A TSA agent came over at this point and escorted me to drop the stroller for the TSA screen & told me this was not a  TSA policy. I had already cleared TSA security and they really didn’t care how big the stroller was, they would take a wand to it if it didn’t fit through the scanner. He apologized for my inconvenience and told us that American was the only airline requiring passengers to check strollers. Ellie and I dropped the stroller off, the jumped into the security line with Korey and the boys. after making it through security, Korey took Ellie, Ethan, and our larger carry-on in the one single stroller we still had and went to the gate to verify our seating. Gabe, Zach and I stopped to grab sandwiches and pizza to take on the plane.  This was a very stressful experience & I feel that it put my children at risk since they couldn’t be safely strapped in their stroller in the airport.  Juggling a toddler, food, a backpack and drinks, we made it to gate just before boarding. So much for that calm, relaxing lunch we thought we would have.

As we were standing there waiting to board, Korey says, “Did that woman Joy look familiar to you? I could swear she is the same one who hassled us the last time we flew out of Austin. The name rings a bell too.” Yes, we had issues the last time we flew out of Austin when I was 5 months pregnant with the twins. Then the ticket agent (maybe it was Joy) tried to charge us for our car seats to be checked because they were in bags after we had waited in line for over an hour to check in for a 7 am flight. We were delayed by security that day as well because I had a bottle of water in our carry-on that I forgot about because we had emergency formula for Ethan’s milk since he was only 14 months old at the time. Oh, and then there was the time last year when Korey and the older boys flew to Texas by themselves for Opa’s birthday party and American lost their car seats… we are beginning to think we don’t want to fly into the Austin airport again.

Once we boarded our flight, we were in for a turbulent ride to Dallas. It was bad enough that they didn’t even bring out the drink cart. Good thing too because by the looks of the flight attendant sitting by us, I think work might have actually sent her over the edge. She had a scrowl on her face from the moment we got on the plane and practically snarled at Korey when he asked her a question. Once we landed in Dallas, we had to get everyone on the Skylink to transfer to a different terminal for our flight home. We made it to that gate and got Korey’s seat reassigned so he would be seated with the rest of us. Then to look for food. I just needed a McDonald’s or somewhere to get the kids nuggets. We had 30 minutes before boarding and nuggets would be easily transported. Unfortunately the closest McDonald’s was 9 gates away from us, almost all the way back to the terminal we had just left. There was no way we could carry the kids and get everyone to McDonald’s the potty and back before boarding. Ethan and I set off for McDonald’s. After a quick pit stop for Ethan to potty, we made it to McDonald’s. While waiting for them to cook fresh nuggets I was able to slip into the Dallas Cowboys store next door and pick the kids up Cowboys t-shirts. Even after the wait, they got the order wrong and left Korey’s salad off the order. By the time I realized this, Ethan and I were halfway back to the gate (Ethan was running to keep up with me) and my cell phone was buzzing as Korey tried to reach me as we were in the next group to board.

The last leg of our flight was fairly uneventful considering all we had been through that day. We had been stressed for 2 months because our assigned seat were all over the plane and at the time we boarded Korey was still sitting in the row in front of me, Ellie & Zach while Gabe and Ethan were across from me by themselves. The couple sitting beside Korey quickly agreed to swap seats with the boys, then they were even able to move forward a row as the 2 seats across the aisle from Korey were empty and we were on the very back row by the engines (if you’ve never sat there, it’s pretty loud even on an MD-80). In the end, Zach moved up to sit with Daddy and Gabe came back to sit with Ellie and me. The seats across from us were occupied by the two rear flight attendants who were very nice and very helpful. Neither of them were even aware that American had changed their stroller policy.

We made our way off the plane in Raleigh with 4 very tired children. Ellie took the stroller while Zach rode on Daddy’s shoulders. Since RDU was pretty deserted at 9 pm, we let Gabe and Ethan run in front of us to try the moving sidewalks. It took another 30 minutes to gather our bags and locate our stroller. Stroller come out a different area, not the normal baggage carousel. Luckily, Ellie spotted it for us. Also lucky for us was that we had thought to pack pajamas in our carry-on for Ellie and Zach. We had changed them on the plane and by the time we drove the 15 minutes home, they were both fast asleep.

So our trip ended okay, but I don’t know if I can forgive American Airlines for causing us such grief over the use of our stroller. Korey’s mom works in reservations for AA, so we asked her about this policy when we saw her over the weekend. She had never heard of it. She said she routinely tell passengers that they will be able to take their strollers all the way to the gate and use the gate check process so they are available as soon as they get off the plane. She said that strollers are always a concern for passengers traveling with small children. I do believe that Joy and her supervisor, if she really called a supervisor, unnecessarily stressed and inconvenienced us when we were clearly within the guidelines that AA has defined and communicated with passengers prior to travel. I would caution other travelers to be aware of these “new” policies and know exactly what the airline’s policy is before flying. I wish I had had the time to pull up AA.com on my iPad that day and show Joy that she was wrong. The policy clearly stated strollers should be less than 20 lbs. There was nothing that singled out double strollers. At the very least, I feel that AA should offer us complimentary miles or tickets to make up for this inconvenience.

Gabe was out of school today for Veteran’s Day, so we took some time this morning to finish his first project in the first grade. The assignment was to disguise his turkey, then write a story to go along with it letting his class know if his Turkey survived Thanksgiving or if the turkey ended up being dinner. Gabe decided his turkey should be a Secret Agent, so I helped him find the appropriate attire to dress “Secret Agent T” and he wrote his story (with a little help from Mom).

On Thanksgiving Day, Secret Agent S found himself in a pen in the backyard at the Klier home.  He looked around thinking, “I have to get out of here or I’m going to be dinner.” He thought he could make a big hole so he could get out. He used his grappling hook to shoot through the hole and grab a tree so he could pull himself out. Once out, he blew up a balloon to look like a turkey and put it back in the pen, closing the hole back up with string. Then he found a shed with a toy Gator in it. He turned the Gator into a secret agent jet-car. He looked around for people. He saw me coming, so he jumped in the Gator and flew away to his secret agent hideout. I was so surprised when I got to the pen and found a balloon instead of our turkey. Oh well, I guess we’ll have pizza.

So, about a year and a half ago, Gabriel started asking us if he could play baseball instead of soccer. It seems he was never really into soccer and baseball sounded like fun to him. Unfortunately when he first asked, it was too late to get him on a team for that season. Flash forward to March of this year and Gabe got his wish. He started out on a t-ball team with the Parkwood Sports Association. Gabe’s team, the River Bandits, were mostly first year players, but they came a long way over the course of the season.

Gabe as the Bandits' catcher

Playing 2nd base.

Ready to run.

Over the summer, Gabe did very well on our neighborhood swim team and also tried his hand at tennis with a neighborhood tennis camp. While he liked swimming and tennis, he kept asking when he could play “real” baseball. Fortunately the Parkwood Sports Association decided to have a fall baseball league, so we signed Gabe up as a “rookie”. Practice started in September with about 5 Saturday morning games through October (all at 8:30… that was tough).  The rookie league was better for Gabriel as he played with older kids (the age range for the team was 6 to 9). We were also impressed with the coaches and the way they really worked with the kids on developing skills. The really funny thing was that fall baseball doesn’t draw as many participants, so they played against the same team in every game of the fall season. Gabe got a chance to play 3 different positions on a regular basis, outfielder, pitcher (although they didn’t really pitch) and catcher.

Braves' catcher

Batter up!

In the end the last game was rained out, so the coaches took the opportunity to reschedule on a weeknight and have the game under the the lights at the larger Parkwood field. The boys were very excited about that. All in all it was a good season and a good experience for Gabe. He is already looking forward to spring baseball.

The Braves

There’s nothing quite like spending Halloween with 4 kids who love to dress up. We have a costume box at home and see the kids running around in costumes regularly. From super heroes to pirates and pirate princesses to a secret agent spy (complete with suit and dark glasses) we see it all. Since we all had work and school on Monday before the Halloween festivities began, I decided to take advantage of a beautiful Sunday afternoon and dress the kids up for some early pictures.

Ellie was a Fairy Princess…

the Fairy Princess

but she didn’t stop there…. she wanted to be a Pirate Princess too.

the Pirate Princess

Zach decided to dress up as Mickey Mouse…

Mickey Mouse

Then he decided being a debonair Pirate might be more fun….

the Debonair Pirate

Ethan wanted to be a pirate too. That’s one of his favorite things these days…..

Pirate Ethan

And Gabe decided on a Power Ranger “RPM” From his latest favorite show – The Might Morphin Power Rangers.

Power Ranger - RPM

To say they had fun dressing up just doesn’t describe our afternoon. So it was no surprise on Monday that they all wanted to dress up for school/daycare. Ethan, Ellie and Zach joined their friends Jackson and Ana at Ms. Sue’s for a Halloween party. The showed off when Mommy picked them up by singing “Trick-or-Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.”

Pirate Ethan, Optimus Prime Jackson, Princess Ellie, Mickey Zach and Princess Ana

And coming soon… The Karate Kid….

Trick-or-treating brought new options into play and Gabe and Zachary decided to change costumes once again…

Ready for trick-or-treating.

After about an hour of trick-or treating in the cold, drizzling rain (the reason we don’t have actual photos of that time), Ethan’s feet were tired and Mom & Dad were ready to get little ones to bed. Gabe agreed that he had enough candy, so we declared it a successful evening, left our neighbors still treating and headed home. Instead of filling up on candy, we had a little pumpkin cake with Rea-Rea & Pop-Pop who decided to drop by and check our our Halloween costumes. Then it was off to bed — of course it was still after 9 before all the kids were asleep making for a tired Mom & Dad too.

All in all, Halloween 2011 was a huge success for the Klier household.