26 reasons I am SO glad Erin Nicole Houghtaling Badger was born 26 years ago today!

1. Her constant and unconditional patience with me and love for me
2. She has super-human reading powers that allows her to read the entire Harry Potter series in one week
3. Her high-pitched, cackle-like laugh and snorts when she watches America's Funniest Home Videos
4. She loves musicals and loves me for loving them
5. Her infectious and inspiring love of the Savior and the gospel
6. She gets giddy over DQ blizzards or Costa Vida
7. When she talks baby-talk to all cats
8. The fact that when we went to pick out a movie the other night she picked an action thriller
9. She LOVES watching football games
10. Her unyielding drive to stand up for what is right, even if it isn't always fun or easy
11. Her incredible musicality - seriously, it's almost annoying how good she is sometimes
12. Her boarder-line obsession with all things Disney
13. When she gets so excited about something that her voice gets high pitched and she jumps up and down clapping her hands
14. She is a great judge of character and picks wonderful friends
15. She is passionate about the importance of family and family time
16. Her wonderful family
17. She is low maintenance - her idea of the perfect vacation is on a hot sunny beach with a book
18. She has an infectious zeal and love for life
19. The goofy look on her face when she thinks that she is dancing well - but at least she has a lot of fun trying
20. The fact that she will chase down a parade float to get another cheap Frisbee
21. Her knockout good looks
22. Her amazing teaching ability
23. Her ability to immediately connect with people and make them feel special and welcome
24. Her desire and ability to have fun in almost any situation
25. She is my best friend
26. The fact that she married me and made me the happiest man and luckiest man in the world!

I could come up with 26,000 reasons, but on her 26th birthday I will stick to these. Happy birthday sweetheart. I love you!






Seriously, you can't help but just love this girl!

Garden 2011

Well I guess it is time we start blogging again. I will leave the long and detailed updates of what we have been up to to Erin, but I thought I would share with you our garden update for this year.

This year we actually have two gardens, one on our deck and we also have a plot at out ward garden. Since our zucchini and squash really didn't do great in containers last year, we did the squash at the ward garden and kept the tomatoes, peppers and beans here at the house. Erin makes INCREDIBLE zucchini bread and wanted to be sure we had plenty of zucchini. I tried to warn her that two plants would give us more than enough, but she wasn't convinced so we ended up with FOUR zucchini plants, two yellow squash and a pumpkin at the ward garden and needless to say, we have zucchini coming out our ears. The other day I picked a MASSIVE zucchini so Erin decided she would grate it to make some bread. Well when all was said and done she had 18 cups out of ONE zucchini! So you live and learn, but it has been fun and quite humorous to have so much zucchini. Anyone have a good zucchini recipe?

Our container garden on our deck is also doing well. We have picked a bunch of tomatoes and okra, and our peppers are doing really well, which is sadly more than I can say for our green beans. However, regardless of how much fruit it all produces, I still love to see what can come from a little seed and some TLC. It is a neat feeling to watch life happen right before your eyes and extremely fulfilling to pick a bright red tomato and know that you had a part in helping it grow.

Here are some pics that were taken a few weeks ago. Best of luck to all my fellow want-a-be gardeners out there.