I don't take for granted some of the beautiful weather we get for outdoor portrait sessions in Chapel Hill, North Carolina ... especially now that we're in the thick of heat-advisory weather. It's literally 100 degrees today, yech! But on this late Spring day, I was lucky enough to spend a breezy, sunshiney afternoon tracking Miss Charlotte as she bounced around lovely Coker Aboretum with her mom and brother Marshall in tow...

with Big Brother Marshall :)

(altogether now!)

It's absolutely crazy how these little beauties keep growing ... this was Marshall and Charlotte five years ago and four years ago, respectively!

I do love how photography has the power to stop time.

After a great experience speaking at the National Association of Professional Child Photographers' Retreat, I joined my good friend Dane Sanders for another episode of askdane.com, and we continued our ongoing discussion about the elusive concept of *balancing it all*. Since I've heard some pretty interesting feedback from this fun, casual chat (commiserations, observations, questions, and suggestions), I thought I'd share it here, as well. Would love to hear if any of you have any responses or, hopefully, great suggestions that you can share to help others in this lifelong quest :) by the way, if the show stalls before starting, just hit pause and play - or go here.

...like Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3 :)

(portrait sessions on the beach at Bald Head Island, North Carolina :)