Introducing...

Mccoy Hunter Peterson

 Boy oh boy, we are loving this little guy!  He is So sweet!  He really is such a good baby, which I am extremely grateful for!  He's already three weeks old, but I love that he is still just little and fun.  He was born February 6 and was 7lb 4oz and just perfect!  I was reminded how much I hate labor, but how much I love them when they get here.  We really didn't have this name picked out until Ty and I went to the temple the Thurs. before he was born.  He was almost named Hunter, but when Ty whispered Mccoy to me, I really liked it and got excited to name him.  We wanted to keep the Hunter though because a)it's cute b)all the hunting he did in the womb, and c) the kids really loved it.   In the end it all worked out. Sure glad we went to the temple!  I think he's pretty lucky to come into our family, and we a lucky to have him.

My Beautiful Girl

 It's hard to believe I have an eight year old and she got baptized!  She was super excited, and it went perfect.  She chose to do it the same day as her cousin which was fun for her.  It was a perfect day and I loved seeing my beautiful girl all in white.  In exactly one year, Derek will be doing the same thing.  Love my kids, and enjoy each stage of their childhood.

Step aside Ty, there's a new hunter in the Family!

 Let's go back a few months shall we?  So many of you may not know much about hunting, I didn't either until I married Ty.  They are big time hunters and love to go every year with brothers and their dad.  I did a little hunting trip a few years back, but it was not serious or long.  So, you put your name into a drawing for the different animals and hope you get drawn so you can hunt.  It's not very likely to draw in a lot of the hunts.  I however, seem to have great odds and luck with it comes to this.  This year I drew on all three hunts I put into.  This is really odd and all the Peterson's couldn't believe it.  Well, if your lucky enough to draw, you have to go, Pregnant or not!  I will say it's not ideal to go hunting halfway through your sixth pregnancy, but it did help keep me in shape!  Anyhow, I Really did enjoy hunting with Ty.   He was always sweet and we have some great hunting memories now together.  I'll spare you the details of each hunt, and just share the pictures. 

Antelope

3x4 Mule Deer

6pt. Bull Elk

So, I guess I will brag a little bit here.  This is the 2nd biggest elk any Peterson has ever shot!  And that is saying something.  This hunt about killed me, but we had an awesome experience watching so many elk so close to us.  I do love being outdoors and seeing wild animals so close!  It was such an awesome day until I got the flu a few hours later and had a miserable night in the mountains sick as I've ever been.  Not cool! But I'm super happy I was able to harvest all three animals and see why my husband enjoys hunting so much.  I will go again, but hopefully not pregnant!  My favorite part is the surprise I brought to everyone, especially my mom's family.  They are hunters and had a hard time fathoming that I, Katie, shot a gun, let alone killed big animals!  I told my grandparents it's just in my blood.  I made my husband and grandpa quite proud people!

Destination 3 & 4

Summer of Firsts Destination 3: Harris Pond

 Yea, I know, it's kid of pathetic I've never been there. I'm so glad we had a church ward party there so I could enjoy this fun spot.  It's a pond a family has right by their house that they let people come and have fun.  It's no little pond either, it's quite big and a lot of fun.  I had a blast.  I don't have many pictures because I was busy playing in the water!  But I do have videos of us jumping off the swings into the water.  They have a slide, swing, zip-line, canoes, and a swing you hang on to and drop into the water.  Everything was super fun.

Destination 4: City of Rocks

Okay, so this is a place I have been to a few times.  I remember going with my family, but that was a long time ago.  I also went with the single's ward nine years ago.  It was the week before Ty and I got engaged, so we were looking at each other more than the awesome landscape. ; )  Anyway, it was nice to go back remember what an amazing place it is.  Ty's sister was visiting from Arizona, so there were a bunch of us there to play.  Before I even got to the base of bath tub rock, most of my kids were half way up the rock!  My kids are not big, but it doesn't slow them down.  I'm glad there were big people there to help them.  It's scary for me in parts, let alone having my small children climb!  But it's an awesome view at the top and was a lot of fun.

On the top of Bath Tub Rock.  It had rained earlier so there was a little tub the kids had fun with looking for tadpole looking things.

Teague practicing his rock climbing skills.

I love my family!

There is a reason this squirrel is fat!

So our summer was fun-filled with lots of new adventures.  We also hiked to the D.  Now this really is pathetic that this was my first time.  I've lived here long enough to hike the D, I mean really?!  There is a reason though.  The D is where all the cowboys went on the weekends to drink, so I naturally avoided the place.  But we hiked it this summer with all my kids.  It's not an easy hike, I'll tell you what!!  I didn't know if I was going to make it let along all my little kiddos.  But we kept enduring and were happy that we accomplished such a hard task.

I'm so glad we had such a good summer and look back at it being busy and fun with Family adventures!  We also enjoyed the normal fun summer things like swimming and a day at Steadman's waterslide, which is always a fun time.  I'm so glad we took full advantage of summer and enjoyed all these awesome places we have so close to our house.

Stop 2 on our Summer of Firsts

 Destination Two: Cauldron Linn

We live right along the Snake River.  It's no Mississippi, but a decent size river.  Well, little did I know there is an amazing place called Cauldron Linn(again within an hour of my house).  This is where all the water flowing down the Snake River passes through a fairly small opening.  It's not that wide and there is a lot of water coming through.  True, there are high times and low times, we were there at an in between stage.  Not the highest it gets, but plenty powerful for me!  You can stay up top and be amazed enough, but if you climb down a bit and really get close and level with the water coming down it is quite amazing.  You feel how powerful water really can be. Wow!  Ty took each of the kids individually to see it closer, then took we down even closer! It was quite a rush! I'm super glad I got to experience it, and even more so with Ty.  (One benefit to not being to all these places before, I get to only have memories of them with Ty and my kids!)

The rock Ty would take each of the kids to get a better look and feel.

Just another fun little cave!

Future VS model?  Let's hope not, but she has the stance down!

You have to admit, this is an amazing place! Another jewel right here in Idaho!

Stop 1 on our Summer of Firsts!

Do you ever reach the end of summer and think, "I was going to do this and that and why didn't we go here and there?"  Well that was not the case for us this summer.  We took full advantage of summer!  So, I'm 29(I love that I can still say that truthfully, (if only for two more days)) Anyway, I'm 29 and have lived in Burley most of my life right? So why did I not go to or even know about some of these places in our back yard?!  I mean really, most of these places are within an hour of my house and I didn't even know they existed!  Well, I like to call this summer, the summer of FIRSTS!  It's totally understandable that it's the 1st time my kids have been to these places, but me at 29 ;)  Well, I'm just glad we got to visit them this year.  It was a fun filled summer. So let me begin!

(Disclaimer: Mom, you may not enjoy all the seemingly dangerous circumstances I put my kids in. 

Sorry, but at least you know we all made it safe and sound!)

First Destination:  Vineyard Lake

Here we are inside a little cave along the trail.

Have you been here?  It's Beautiful!  A fun trail down to a lake in the middle of a desert.  We kept going passed the lake and over the extremely scary board, across a rocky hill and into some trees where we made a campfire, ate hot dogs and smores and just had a good time.  We actually came here a couple of times and the second time, I saw a deer run right through our campsite! So fun!

Our 1st injury.  Karly decided to Jump of a big rock not realizing just how far of a drop it was, resulting in a bloody nose. :(

I made a little friend on the trail.

The friendship ended when he kept trying to climb up my leg.

Can I just tell you what troopers my kids are!  They were AWESOME! Even the little ones did most of the walking on their own!  But I was glad for Trevik and Tate helping us out!

This is Ty's brother Trevik about to jump into the lake.

Remember my disclaimer.  This was the stressful part of the trail right by the extremely scary board we had to walk across.  Luckily Ty isn't scared and sure footed to carry all the kids across. I was stressed enough just getting myself across with Brock on my hip.

The rocky hill.  Derek especially LOVED climbing the rocks!

This good dad stood IN the water so he could get his kids across without them getting wet.

LITERALLY throwing our kids up on the bank!

At the campsite

Ty having a "Man vs Wild" moment catching and killing a snake!

I hate snakes, but Derek wasn't too bothered by it and wanted to hold it up after it was killed.  As you can see, this is no small snake! Gross!

My Cute Kiddos!

 So, I pretty much have the cutest kids ever!  I love each and everyone of them SO much!  They are Awesome and Good and Funny and Sweet and Silly and Fiery and 

I Love them SO SO MUCH!

So grateful to have each and everyone of them!  

Karly Mae 7 1/2

Derek Jay 6 1/2

Kami Lyn 4 1/2

Teague 3

Brock 1 1/2

SURPRISE!  A baby boy coming in Feburary!!

I was totally expecting a girl, but he is All BOY!