It was Mike’s Birthday yesterday! For many years now he celebrates this day by inviting all his friends to a barbeque in Huddart park. This year wasn’t an exception and we spent an awesome day in the park playing frisbee, drinking and having lots of yummy food.

The weather wasn’t especially warm yesterday; it got chilly very quickly, so for the last few hours we were socializing around the grill :)

Have a great year Mike!

Love,

Natasha

Mike and I love nature and we try to get out any chance we get. We are always looking for new and exciting places to hike in the South Bay. Recently learning about the 10-mile-long Los Gatos Creek Trail we went to explore it a couple of days ago. Our hiking speed usually really depends on whether or not we have cameras. This time we decided we wanted to take pictures, so while we probably only hiked a mile or two, every flower and bush on the way got successfully documented :)

Some of the day’s catches:

A quick self-portrait:

There was no way I could just pass by the most orange flower ever:

A passerby saw us trying to take a picture of ourselves and kindly offered to photograph us, but we had something specific in mind :)

Hope you guys have a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful spring-time outdoors! We shot an awesome engagement session in Menlo Park last Wednesday and can’t wait to share it with you this week.

Natasha

I know you’ve probably already seen her in our pictures here and there, but right now I want to properly introduce a member of the family – our cat Tosha.

Tosha is an experimental cat, meaning that every time we need to experiment with the new equipment we get, Tosha becomes our subject. It doesn’t happen that often nowadays, but I guess a long time ago when Mike was just getting into photography (and I wasn’t around yet) Tosha underwent quite a lot. The result of it is that she just cannot stand being photographed! In preparation for every photo shoot we take out all the cameras to check them, change lenses, put the new batteries in. Tosha can sit and watch us, but the second we point a camera towards her she turns away making it impossible to photograph her. How does she even know that I’m trying to focus on her? It’s still a mystery to me.

That’s why I’m so proud of this shot: it was the first sunny day after the rains and Tosha came up to the balcony to bask in the sun. I think she was just too lazy to turn away from me :)

As a side note, we had beautiful and fun maternity photo shoot yesterday in San Francisco and we’ll be posting pictures from it in just a couple of days!

Natasha

Six months ago, I remember praying the whole night that my little niece would enter this world healthy and safe. Right now, I cannot believe that it was only half a year ago! Today Dasha celebrates her six-month birthday! She became the Princess of the family and all the conversations start and end with her name. It’s impossible to even imagine that we didn’t know her only half a year ago.

In addition to being adorable Dasha’s quite an achiever. In only half a year Dasha:

- Started eating solid foods (she refuses to take the bottle now – big girls eat from the spoon!)
- Changed all the roles in our family (it’s still weird to think that my mom is a grandma)
- Survived a horrible Russian winter
- Almost learned how to sit
- Discovered her hands and feet (she munches on her toes all the time now)
- Started talking – well – almost :)
- Brought much, much joy to the family

I have to admit that I didn’t accomplish even close to as much as Dasha did in the last half a year :)

Here are a few pictures taken by my family:

Proud grandma:

You can see of the first baby photography ever captured of Dasha.

Natasha