In the spirit of ,"Better late than never".......

I present to you Halloween 2009

Summers Family Style!

Kort the pirate

Kassidy dressed up as Rapunzel--compliments of Aunt California (thanks chris)

Kennedy as a hippie girl.

Kade as Elvis Presley-be still by beating heart!

Dakota went as an undercover CIA agent-which meant he didn't have to dress up- he was undercover

Halloween was so fun! We went to the Trunk-or-Treat at the church. We were so sure that Kade would win first prize for his Elvis costume, but he was a gracious second place winner. The hardest part to take was that the first place winner was a lady dressed up like---Kim Summers!

Hilarious!

A note from the sponser.....

Thank you for your patience through my 'Groovy Kind of Love/Elvis Presley' phase.

On the same token, please bear with me through my Adam Lambert issue. Something about the chill in the air makes me think of him.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Penny

He huffed and he puffed!

Wow! That is the biggest dandelion I have ever seen!

Hmmm.....that's funny, I can't blow any fluff off. I'll try again.
Nothing.

Fine, I'll just pick it off!

Family Pictures

Imagine this one lighter and a little closer-cuz that is what it will be after I find time to photoshop it!

This was such a fun day!

Kim drove us up in the mountains for family pics!


There were the funnest places up there!

Girls with an attitude!

It did start to rain, but other than some flat hair, it wa still pretty fun!

The girls

We are still working on perfecting a natural smile with Kort!

I want to go back and take some more!

Fun day! Thanks to Kim for scouting out our spot!

Not to be outdone by a city girl!

This is a picture of my sister-in-law at our reunion this summer. These cornrows ( I seriously don't care if I spelled it right) came clear down her back and ended about mid-buttock. My Kassidy was instantly spellbound.
Then, a couple of weeks later, a suspicious package arrived in the mail.

Whatever could it be?

Well, it is four foot hair extensions for a six year girl from Montana. How logical!

You can tell by her face that she is absolutely in heaven!

Thank you Aunt California! Seriously it made her whole week!

But now I am stuck with what to do with them....Oh don't you worry...

Stay tuned in the next month or so (October 31 to be exact) and you'll see that we country folk can use hair extensions too!

How romantical!

Once again romance at the Summers' Ranch is not your typical run-of-the-mill flowers and chocolate. Kim was going on a three day cowboy trip with all the cowboys in the area. They were going to help one of the nieghbors. By the way, when I talk about all of Kim's rough and tumble cowboy friends, I call them 'the gal-pals'. I don't know why, it just makes me happy. Anyway a 3 day trip with the gal-pals and he needs his pants mended. So I mended them. Then in a moment of complete brilliance ( or just plain silliness) I stitched K + P on his patch. I thought it would be funny for the gal-pals and a tiny embarrassing for Kim. He loved it! He wears them with pride---a lot! And it makes me happy and that is one of the reasons I love him!

P.S. If you can't see my stitching masterpiece, just click on the picture to make it bigger.

We have...um...nothing in common

It's true. My friend Jenie (from high school) came to visit for a day or two and we have absolutely nothing in common. Nothing in our everyday lives is comparable to the other.
Which makes it even more mysterious, as to why we had such fun and got along so well!
I don't get it, but I do know that we had a great time. We played cowgirl and went to Primary Activities. We compared cooking and jewelry tastes. And one day just her and I snuck off to
a little town called Philipsburg.

In Philipsburg they have the funnest candy shop ever. We checked out all the fun shops in town but we had the best time in the candy store.

It was a great trip and great company!

You are welcome to come back anytime, Jen!

Thanks for a great week!

I broke out my Photoshop finally and....I'm in heaven. If I had a pizza and a lot of water, I would lock myself in the craft room and never come out! So much fun!

What is it about a bonnet?

Seriously, there is something about a bonnet that just chokes me up!

I don't know what it is,but at Pioneer Days I was smitten by all the bonnets about!

It is just...so...so Laura Ingalls Wilder!

Aww.........Pa!

Honey? The milk cows are out.

I get a phone call from Kim the other day. It sounded something like this:

"Honey? Um...the boss just called."

"Yes?"

"And , well the milk cows are out."

"O.K.?"

"Um...could you and the kids go get them in."

"(dramatic pause) Yes, we'll go get them. Where are they?"

"Well, I don't exactly know. Maybe just wander around a bit, they couldn't have gone to far."

At this point my mind wanders back to a little gathering at my friend Jenie's house a couple of weeks after high school graduation (1989). A bunch of us freshly graduated know-it-alls were discussing what kind of man we were going to marry. In all my 18 year old wisdom. I informed the group that my tall basketball playing lawyer of a husband would be a such a great guy. We would live in our beautiful home at the end of the cul de sac.

There are no milk cows in cul de sacs!
I've visited one the other day. Not a single ding-dong milk cow in the whole area!


Back to my life where I take a deep breath and assemble my team:
one 12 yr old trumpet player
one 9 yr old sissy pants
one 6 yr old sassy mouth
one 5 yr old heathen

Me and the sissy pants jump on the four wheeler and the rest get in the mule and off we go.
I start driving....and somehow get to thinking that I really am the cowgirl that should live at my house. I tear up the mountain looking for the two escapees. Then I happen to look back and notice that in my haste to be a good cowgirl I drove right past the milk cows. Trumpet player and his crew already spotted the cows and have them turned back to the barn. I do a 12 point turn around and sheepishly follow the youngsters. The cows do pretty good and we get them back in thier pens relatively easy--considering that I would still be wandering the mountains looking for the old gals!

I'm glad that somebody around here can get things done, because heaven knows that it sure isn't me!

Moral of the story:

I don't know the moral...just make sure that the gate latches next time you come out of the milk cow pen, or you could be reminded that sometimes 18 yr old know-it-alls never do grow up!

Where did I go wrong?

It all started out so innocently. The sweet well-mannered children reading thier library books on the front porch. One last read of the stories they have come to love over the past week.

Practicing thier reading like thier mother had told them. We head to the library to get more books to fill thier cute little heads with educational dreams and visions.

After story hour they hand out inflatable guitars---so as to stimulate thier creativity and love for classical music.

Or not......

This is what I get when I step out of the suburban.

And then this. Then Kennedy says, "Wait for it....wait for it..."

"Oh ya!", she yells. "Rock and Roll Baby!"

This could very seriously affect my chances for mother of the year!

Splash from the past.....

Swimming lessons were in June this year. The three littlest went. Since Kort was only 4 I had to ride the bus to Missoula with them every day. The pictures are a little blurry...sorry. Kort and his little gang of buddies

This is Kort's sweet grin, after he threw some little toy into the pool after everyone had already got out of the pool. His teacher had to swim on out to get it. He's a charmer...for sure!


Kassidy did a great job. She is a little bit scared of the water, so I was a little nervous. She was brave and did everything they asked of her.

Kennedy hadn't had very much experience in the water either, but she surprized me...

by totally jumping of the diving board!

They all loved it! Since I can't swim a lick, it sure puts my heart at ease as they get better and better in the water!