Hallmark Recordable Storybook & Blooming Expressions Review & -Rafflecopter- Giveaway -- ENDED

What are you getting for your kids this Valentine's Day? For me, I got DD candy and small toys in the previous years. Although she always loved the little things I got for her, I realized that these little things were very short lived. She got tired of the small toys quickly and the candy was gone within a couple of days. This year, Hallmark gave me some great ideas for what to pick up for my kids for Valentine's Day that I just had to share the ideas with you.

First of all, Hallmark sent me a flower that opens up with a touch of a button called Blooming Expressions. When the flower opens up, there is a message inside of it. DD just thought  this was so neat. I love that this is something that could be kept on a desk for a teacher or a loved one that you might be shopping for this Valentine's Day.

The second product I received to review was a best selling children's favorite called "Love You Forever" written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw. I absolutely love this book. Since DH did our last recordable storybook for DD, we decided that I should record this one for baby G. I have to admit that it was a bit hard for me to read through the entire thing for my little guy without crying. It just made me super sad to think about how quickly my kids are growing up and in a blink of an eye, they will be having families of their own. I was talking to my friend Jenni about how emotional I got. (If you are reading this Jenni, I hope you are ok with me sharing the story). My friend Jenni's mother just passed away a couple of weeks away. She told me that a week before her mother passed away from a long battle with cancer, her son asked if she was going to carry grandma to bed since she was sleeping on the couch a lot. His comment instantly reminded her of this exact book. After she died, my friend Jenni went home and found the copy her mom gave her on Valentine's Day in 2001. On the inside cover, it reads "Jenni, I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be. Love, Mom." When my friend Jenni told me the story, my heart just broke for her. It's so hard to lose a parent (I can sympathize because I already lost both of my parents to cancer too). However, at the same time, I love that Jenni had something that she could hold onto as a constantly reminder of just how much her mother loved her. I could only hope that my children will know and always remember how much I love them as well.

If you haven't picked up a recordable book from Hallmark, I highly recommend checking it out. Besides the fact that we love these recordable books, every time I mentioned how much we love them, I always get very positive responses from other mommy friends who own them as well. Foe example, my friend Irene mentioned that her mother-in-law bought a recordable story book from Hallmark and recorded her voice reading the story so that her granddaughter could listen to her read despite the fact that she lives hundred of miles away from them.

To buy these great products I received to review, please visit your local Hallmark stores.

Many thanks to Hallmark. The company has generously offered 1 Blooming Expression ($14.95) and 1 Recordable Storybook ($29.95) as giveaway prizes to one of my lucky readers. This giveaway ends on Feb 25, 2012.

*You must follow Sugar Pop Ribbons through Google Friend Connect to be eligible to win this giveaway.

*You must also leave me a comment using the blogger comment form for this post to be eligible to win this giveaway.

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* Lucky winner or winners will be selected through True Random Number Generator.
* If your profile page does not show your email address, please include your email address in your comment. For example: sugarpopribbons at yahoo dot com -- so that I may get in touch with you if you are selected as the giveaway winner.
* Each giveaway winner has 48 hours to respond to my email about getting the awesome giveaway prize to him/her. If the winner does not reply to my email within 48 hours, I will choose another winner using the True Random Number Generator.
* I do contact each winner via email. If anyone is curious about who the giveaway winner is for any of my giveaways, please go back to the original post of that giveaway. Once a winner is selected through random.org, I will post a screen shot of the number picked by random.org. You will be able to see which number has been selected and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can cross check who the giveaway winner is.
*I received a free product (or products) for review purposes. I did not receive any form of compensation from the company. All opinions are my own and not influenced in anyway. My reviews are not always positive, but they are my personal and honest opinions. Other people's views and experiences with the product or products might be different from mine.

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