This contest is now closed. The winner is felicia k. Congrats!

One of my favorite books that I know I will be passing onto my new nephew is called My Very Own Name. This is customized book for your kids. The animals throughout the story spell out the name you give them (first and last name too if you want!).  The story is written in rhyme, and definitely will grab the attention of any little one reading it.  When you child gets older and is learning to read (like my 5 year old Madison), they think it is the coolest thing ever that one of their books has their name in it.  It also helps with letter recognition too.  The great thing is that the illustrations in this book are so good that you can easily make up your own story instead of the one that is printed.  The attention to detail is amazing.  Another cool feature is the little guide in the back of the book.  It lists about 61 animals and a cool fun fact about each.

If you have a little one in your life (here already or about to be born), this is a gift they won’t be getting from anyone else.  The age range on this book is 0 – 8 years old, so it is the perfect customizable gift!

Now, I have arranged for one of my lucky readers to get one of these customized books.  Here’s what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this entry.  Check out the virtual book tour and tell me which animal you’d like holding up the letters in your name.

Each of these gives you one additional entry:

1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

RT @blm03 is giving away a copy of My Very Own Name! http://urlbrief.com/f6313a

2. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.

3. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

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This contest is for US residents and will end at March 20th at noon CST and is for US residents. Good Luck!!!

Up until recently, I had never heard of the Only Hearts Club.  The Only Hearts Club are real dolls for real girls. There are eight culturally diverse dolls.  They dress like real kids, are poseable, and are nine inches tall.  Their names are: Taylor Angelique, Karina Grace, Olivia Hope, Briana Joy, Lily Rose, Anna Sophia, Kayla Rae and Hannah Faith.  These girls form a club together called the Only Hearts Club and their motto is to “listen to your heart and do the right thing.”  For our house, these fit perfectly into Madison’s dollhouse.  There is another kind of doll out there that I cannot stand (I won’t name it), but these are a welcome alternative!  I love the positive message they are sending out to little girls.  They also have soft bodies which is great in my house (not that the kids are going to whack one another with them, but you never know).

They also have a line a books for your daughters to enjoy. We have the hardcover It’s Hard To Say Good-bye book.  The book about one of the girls losing her dog. One of the other girls goes to find another puppy for her and falls in love with the puppy herself.  I won’t tell you about the rest of the story, but it is about how the Only Hearts Club came about.  It is a cute short story and just the right length to hold young girls attention spans.  It also taught some morals without being obvious about it.

They even have Only Hearts Pets.  They are 2 1/2 inches tall and really cute.  They are really soft and each pet has its own name.  It also comes with a backpack clip.  The paws of each animal also have Velcro on them, so you are able to have them hold small objects like a pen or you can create a bracelet with secerql of them.  There are all sorts of pets also:  dogs, cats, monkeys, cows, pigs, frogs, and elephants.

All of these Only Hearts Club products are perfect for the little girls you have in your life.  They can be found at Target or online at The Only Hearts Club.  The Only Hearts Books retail at $3.99 each. The Only Hearts Club dolls retail at $15.99 each, and the Only Hearts Pets retail at $3.49 each.  These prices make this a very affordable present this holiday season.

Something that my daughter likes is anything that can be customized. Shains is one of items that she really likes. Shains is recycled fashion accessories. There is a little something for everyone; there are keychains, ponytail holders, necklaces, pins, bracelets, and dog collars. Madison easily made herself a bracelet and a ponytail holder. There are 50 letter and symbols that can be used, so you can easily make any message you want. Madison enjoyed being able to spell her name and then put a ton of symbols like a ice cream cones and a strawberry next to her name. She really enjoyed being able to be as creative as she wanted to be. She also loved being able to do this all by herself. She didn’t need us to make the bracelet at all!

Shains stands for “state how action is a necessary solution”. They realized right away that wasn’t going to be catchy enough, so they shortened it to Shains. Shains are made of 100% recyclable scrap materials. I personally think it is brilliant that the owner of this company took something that others were throwing away and came up with a great product for kids! I also love that 10% of the net profits are also donated to environmental organizations.

If you have a fashionable environmentally conscious kid who has everything, Shains is the way to go!

Do you always find you can never your pen when you need one? With Kooky Klickers, you will never lose your pen again. However, you will find more people borrowing your pens and not returning them. Each Kooky Klickers pen has a unique design and are six inches in length. They have crazy stringy hair that bounces and springs when you write too! Each Kooky Klicker has a special design, unique name, birth order, and number holographic sticker. They are released as part of a six member crew too. These easily attach to your key chain, and everyone will want to know where you got yours when they see it! (I know that has happened for me). Now, if I have as much fun as an adult with this, imagine how much fun your kids will have! Madison thought they were super funny looking, and she loved writing with them. Since Will is only one, he just giggled when he saw them. He also thought they were pretty funny when he was trying to write with his pen too!

Kooky Klickers are an excellent stocking stuffer for Christmas for both adults and kids alike!

I See Me! are some the best personalized books out there on the market.  I was able to look at a couple of samples, and I am impressed.  My kids love the sample books, so I am seriously considering getting them their own.  There have several different books to pick from, but I am just going to review the two that I received.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the illustrations in this book.  They are some of the most detailed I have seen in a kids book ever.  My Very Own Name has each page spelling out your child’s name. They also have a cute saying to go with it.  Being that we are working on letter sounds and spelling with Madison, this is something very helpful to us.  When you get to the end of the book, your child’s name will be completely spelled out (first and last).  There also is an animal encyclopedia.  It tells you about each animal in the book.  For example, an elephant can weigh up to 13,000 lbs and a daddy emus sit on the eggs to keep them warm! This book also includes your child’s birthday and a dedication from the sender. This is definitely for both boys and girls from 0 – 8 years old.

My Very Own Fairy Tale is for girls ages 0 – 12 years old. This book has fairies spelling your little girls first and last name in rhyme.  The illustrations in this book too are awesome.  You just don’t see this in kids books.  At the end of this book, there is “The Fairy Patch”.  It is a listing of all the fairies in the book.  Each fairy is named after a plant, so they is also a little bit about each plant.  For example, we learned that growers harvest cranberries by flooding their fields with water and iris is the Greek word for rainbow.  This too has a personal dedication in it from the sender.

Both of these books are a hit in my house.  This is definitely a great gift for not only your children, but for that kid in your life that seems to have everything.  These books have already gotten hours of use at  my house.