A Glance Over the Past 4 Years. Happy Anniversary!

Willie this post is for you!

Tomorrow we will celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary. 

Tonight as I type this, you are somewhere in transit from Indonesia and will be delivered to me (hopefully) tomorrow around 2pm. 

(not that I'm counting down or anything...)

I've always heard it's bad to say it feels like you have been married longer than you have been. But I certainly feel that way. The past 4 years have been very good and FULL years. Here's a little recap with LOTS of pictures to celebrate the past 4 years and look on to the many more! 

I love you Willie. 

4 years and 5 months ago (ish) 

I had just returned from Romania and you surprised me with a plane ticket to see you in Spokane. We had been dating long distance for one year. I was in Wisconsin (and Romania). You were in Washington finishing school to be an Airplane mechanic.

You took me to where we first met...

...and popped the question.

I said YES :)

(actually first I said "are you kidding me" because I was standing very close to the edge of a cliff.... but then I said yes :)

You moved back to Wisconsin and we planned our South Carolina wedding for the next 5 (ish) months. 

Then on NOVEMBER 13, 2010

I became Mrs. William Nickols

Applying for the marriage license.

Practice run.

Real deal. With my daddy. 

 waiting so patiently.

The hand off. 

We are praying... but I think my sister is just smelling the flowers lol :) 

(sorry Ally I couldn't help myself!)

We said our vows.

We gave our rings.

And we did this... in front of a lot of people.

There we are,

Mr.& Mrs. Willie Nickols

Your guys.

Andrew Duncan, Perry Rivers, Stevie Nickols, My Man, David Lenz, Don Nickols, Philip Nickols, Andy Nickols.

My ladies.

Me, Allyson Rivers, Emily Verhagen, Jenna Lee, Lacey Dibble, Regina Labby. 

Our cake My Gramma made. 

I don't think we could have picked a better place.

(and of corse, there was soccer at our wedding)

We said Adios to everyone around 6? Hopped in our Chevy Prizm and drove toward the Smokey Mountains for our Honeymoon. 

We made it a little way before stopping at a hotel.

Remember the weird stares we got because I was still in my dress? I kinda liked it :) 

I enjoyed spending the week with you in that beautiful cabin in the Mountains. I also enjoyed all of the smooching :)

We moved to Wisconsin and began life as Husband and Wife.

One month later,

We found out we were expecting our first child.

We were both working and you were doing some online classes. 

September 14, 2011

Owen James Nickols was born :)

Thanks for being by my side the WHOLE labor. That was a long time and it was really nice to have you help me each step of the way.

Remember what it was like to hold him for the first time?

Our first child.

We had no idea what we were in for!

Look how tiny he was. 

Those were hard days. I had NO IDEA I could be that tired. Or why sometimes he just would not stop crying for hours. Those first few months were the hardest of my whole life (even to this day). And we got through it together.      Now look at us! :) We're pros lol.  

And he is so worth it.

Then, we moved. 

I should copy that phrase to the clip board because we've done that 6 times since we were married. Not to mention in 3 different states. The post office probably hates us. 

We lived in Washington while you went to school full time. 

We made great friends and grew a lot in our marriage.

You were in school (more than) Full time. We were navigating the awkward waters of raising support. We were 9 months into figuring out this whole husband/wife/parenting thing. We were stretched over and over and over again as we sought God for direction. We grew in our faith together as we saw Him provide in ways that we knew could only be Him. 

When Owen was 16 months old we found out we were going to have another baby. I was so happy because I had been having the itch for a while and was wondering when it would happen. 

I guess I forgot how hard the first trimester was lol.

I was SO tired. And you helped with Owen so much so I could rest those early months. I didn't forget about that. I am really blessed to have you. 

Just as I came out of the first trimester, we spent a couple months in Alaska asking God if that is where He wanted us to go next. 

 And this is where we saw that huge bear by the water!

It was a great trip. I treasure those walks and time as a family we had. But we came back with few answers of what the future would hold. That was hard for me. I just knew when we were going there that it was going to be the next step... but I came back with a lot of questions. 


You started back up at school full time and we moved to the Altmeyer's farm. We've done a lot of community living. :) Then the time came for our little girl to be born. 

I was ready :) I remember having little clusters of contractions on and off for days not really thinking anything about it except that I was getting closer. Then, when I was actually in labor on my due date, I was in denial lol. Thanks for driving me to the birthing center :) Remember how I was in the car?? lol. I'm still a little mad that you stopped at that red light :P 

But we made it. And just in time too! 2 (or was it 3?) hours later our little princess was born. 

Emma Joy Nickols

Thanks for being by my side the whole (very short) time. 
I love having babies with you! 
:) 

 Owen meets Emma for the first time.

When the time was right, we knew we had our next step. We moved to Idaho so you could work with MAF and finish your degree online. 

You've pretty much been in school since before we were married. . . You work so hard. Keep it up, the end is near!!!! I can see it!!!!!

So here we are. 4 years, 3 states and 2 kids later... not to mention 1 awesome camper. Just doing life. 

Emma is already a year old.

And Owen is 3! 

(wow you look like stevie in this dome picture)

And while I am in my "mid" twenties (25) you are now in your "late" twenties (27)
Practically 30. Which might as well be 40 :P 
just saying. your not getting any younger.

 Our time here in Idaho is coming to an end in January and only God knows for sure what that will bring for us. I look forward to whatever it is. Alaska maybe? :) Romania? Wisconsin? South Carolina? I look forward to wherever it is too, because I'd go anywhere with you.  


Happy 4 year Anniversary! 

Bought our first home!!!

So excited :) 

Just wanted to announce that we are officially 

"home owners."

¹home

 noun \ˈhōm\

: the place (such as a house or apartment) where a person lives

: a family living together in one building, house, etc.

: a place where something normally or naturally lives or is located

While we did not buy a house, we did purchase our first home in the form of a 5th wheel camper!

Here's the grand tour and how this came about :)

Owen's new hiding spot.

         The welcome mat. Come on in! :)

So, why buy a camper? We've tossed the idea around for a long time but it never seemed feasible.

 In theory it went like this... Take whatever we are paying for rent and multiply it by 12 months. Whatever the answer is, is how expensive of a camper we can afford. Find a camper for that price. Live in it for a year and pay it off. Live in it for another year and save enough for a hefty down payment on a house, or land, or whatever. (or maybe a truck to pull it! :P)

Sounds good right? 

In theory it sounded great to us.... But until now it never worked out. We either didn't have a predictable income or there wasn't a camper in our price range or if there was - it was a dump and not worth it to us. 
And did I mention we don't have a truck? yea. It was a far fetch.

So, we kept it as a little dream but kinda stopped looking. We resolved that if it's what The Lord has for us then it would happen in His time.

Then, one day we went for a walk. There is a park in a neighborhood down the road from our house that Owen loves. 

While on our walk I saw a for sale sign for a fifth wheel camper on a chair in someone's driveway. $7,995. Next to the house was a VERY NICE (brand new) fifth wheel.... And I thought, "surely it's not that one" ... I knocked on the door and asked about the sign and she told me they keep the one that is for sale at their farm and they can bring it into town if we are interested. 

We were very interested. 

That was on the weekend. 
Tuesday the following week we got to check it out for the first time. 

I loved it :) 

The man told us that if we were thinking about living in it we should try it out for a weekend and see if we actually like it. He gladly offered to pull wherever we wanted to stay and let us try it out for free! 

The only master bedroom :)

Did I mention that I loved it? 

We went over our situation to see if we could actually take the jump. 

We would need to get a loan. 

Find someone to take over our lease on our current place. 

And figure out how much it would cost to park it. 

Our landlord gave us the  "cleared for take off" and already has many applications in to take our place once we leave. 

We found out we can stay at Mission Aviation Fellowship's RV lot. (which is awesome because willie can just walk across the parking lot to work!) 

We got approved for the loan at the bank.....

.....And we bought it the next Monday! 

We ended up getting it for 7,500! which is a steal for a first home right!? :D 

We haven't moved in yet, but it looks like we will start packing up and doing that this week. 

I can't wait to move in and meet all our neighbors :)  

There are two other MAF families that stay in their 5th wheels year round, as well as many volunteers and missionaries coming and going all the time. 

Yes it is small. 
But not too small.
It's just right :)

Not only will this allow us to put our "rent" money to better use, but it will save us money on traveling in the future too. With my family in SC and Willie's in WI, airplane tickets can rack up really fast with a family of 4. (especially since owen needs his own ticket now, and Emma will also need her own in a year) 

Speaking of Emma :) there's our little chunk. practicing her parade wave. 

There will definitely be some adjustments. Like this tiny sink. It's as deep as the palm of my hand. And apparently as long as a wash rag. I'll let you know how that goes :) 

Another deciding factor for us was wanting to set ourselves up for whatever God has next in our lives. 

If we partner with a mission's organization, part of our time will be traveling around raising support before we leave. The camper will let us travel where we need to but still keep a "normal" family routine (and not have to pack and unpack our stuff all the time).
Not to mention, when we come home on furloughs we would have a place to stay that we can travel around in to visit family. 

To be honest, we don't know what's next in our journey. But we do know we are willing to go wherever God leads us. So for now, this is our best shot at some flexible stability and we couldn't be more thankful. 

...and this is for free -- there are tons of families (with kids) full time RVing! who knew? Lots of inspiring blogs and videos. google it :)