Allani is my cousin, although she feels more like a sister. We've kept in close touch as long as I can remember, exchanging letters, emails & more recently thru blogs. So it was so NICE to see her in person with her hubby Bob along with their two cute kids Xander & Zenna when they came for a visit last month. They live up in the state of Washington and wanted to get out of the rain before she has their third little one! So I thought I'd surprise them with having Jose Villa shoot their family photos while they were here. Since she so loved the photos he took of Josh & I few months ago, I knew it'd be the perfect gift!

I really think the photos captured all of their personalities as a family....warm & loving, and Xander jumping is perfect! I so adore all the photos and can barely pick a favorite, but I really like the one up top the best, which was actually one of the last taken. All the photos came out fantastic! What a beautiful family memory.

I love & miss you lots Allani, Bob, Xander and Zenna....and thanks again Jose!

Here are some of my favorite people, Billy, Ashley & their adorable little boy, Jack...some close friends of ours. Jose Villa was so kind to come down to Ventura to take their family photos at Olivas Adobe. He got some fun shots of the 3 of them, but of course as always Jack stole the show! Can you see why? :)

Thanks again Jose for your kindness & awesome talent!

As most of you are already aware, plastic shopping bags are bad for the environment. According to bringyourownbag.com "100 million plastic bags a week go to landfill. Plastic bags can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment." And just at the start of this year, San Francisco has become the first city in the US to ban plastic bags.

So for the past year I've been trying to do my part in using eco friendly shopping bags. I have the chico bag in a variety of cool colors. I was just browsing online for other types and came across these adorable ones by niccocjm, you can see how awesome they are in the photos below...and with cute quotes too! I just ordered 6 myself! She makes them to order.

Hopefully we can all do our part in some way or another to help the environment....our planet is much too beautiful to trash.

1. Me & Josh
2. Joel & Jose
3. Linda Chaja, Jose & Elisa
4. Isabel & Larry Lawrence
5. Jeff Newsom & wife
6. Anna & Cameron Ingalls
7. Elisa, Jose & Susan Dean
8. Ben & Michelle Warren