Brooke's Golden Birthday

 I know that we already celebrated Brooke's birthday when all of the kids were in Utah,

but we still did the Holt family birthday tradition of waking the birthday girl up

 with a plate of donuts with candles, singing Happy Birthday!

Even though she was turning 19, she is still a little girls at heart and still loves this tradition...
 and so do I!

And even though Brooke had already opened up her gifts, 

Ashley and I thought that she ought to have something to open up on her "Golden Birthday"

so we asked a few of Brooke's close friends and family to wrap up one simple gift 

from the Dollar Store that reminds them of Brooke with a note or card.

Her roommate, McCall, doesn't know the word "simple" or "one" and wrapped up lots of gifts!

Yes! All those presents that are wrapped in gold foil paper are from McCall.  Love that gal!

 She gave her gummy bears "for the bear!"  Love it!

 Courtney Bassett made this cute note to Brooke!  What a sweetheart!

 Allie and Justin gave her this this puzzle because "she is a hero" to them.

 And a pink pig because she loves pigs!

 Gold medals because she has won so many medals over all these years.

 While lunching at Dodo's in Salt Lake City last year, 
we ordered a banana cream cheese pie and Brooke LOVED it (and so did I!)

So for her birthday, I surprised her and ordered a whole banana cream cheese pie from Dodo's.

It was as delicious as we remembered it was and she was totally surprised!

She got a bottle of Powerade from Tyler because she drinks so much Powerade and so does Tyler.

And Sonya gave her sparkly nail polish because she sparkles 
and since they are sisters, they need to stick together.

She loved both gifts but was most excited about the nail polish!  
Don't get me wrong, she loved the Powerade too 
but she would have loved it even more if she had just finished one of her workouts:)!

 Brooke got a "Kind" candy bar because she is so kind.

 Justin gave Brooke her batteries because she is like the Energizer bunny!

 Dad and I gave her a silly pig card that sang a silly song...

 and a bunch of other pig stuff for this pig lover.

 And then after all the birthday celebration was done,

Dad and Justin gave each of the girls sweet "back to school" blessings and did a beautiful job!

 It was a wonderful day and I couldn't think of a better way to end Brooke's "Golden Birthday!"

A special blessing from Dad is worth much more for then gold!