Aunt A-ka.

I have no idea what it is about my name that makes it soooooo hard to pronouce for a little kid, but whatever the reason....it is. I have been called Eh-nika and Eka. My cousin, Sarah, couldn't say Ericka and called me Urlicka forever. My Aunt Jean will still call me that when she calls me on the phone. My sister couldn't say Ericka when we were little so she just called me Ketchup. (Of course, that could've had something to do with the fact that I ate ketchup on practically everything.) And Danicka is just carrying on the legacy.

"Aunt A-ka".

A couple weekends ago (I know!! I've been so busy I couldn't even find time to post these until today!!)....Anyhoo....a couple of weekends ago, I kept Dani so my sister could go out to celebrate her birthday with some friends.

I love this kid.

The only time she didn't have us in stitches was when she was sleeping. We laughed so hard at her, the things she said, and the things she did. I kept my camera handy for most of the day just to catch her in action. Don't worry, I'll save you the bare toosh pictures.




See what I mean?! This girl is a comedian in her own little world. I wish I would have taken a picture of the aftermath of the Spaghetti O's. Oh my gosh. Bryce is our messiest eater in this house, and Dani put him to shame.

This picture makes me smile so hard....from the inside out.

The cool thing about being an aunt is spoiling the kids. You know, letting them do the fun things at your house that they'd get in trouble for at home -- jumping on the beds, eating Spaghetti O's with no silverware, eating candy before dinner -- the really cool things that make "Aunt A-ka" really cool. (I'm always up for some extra cool points.)

I took this set of pictures in about ten minutes. As in, ten minutes total. Once she crashed, she crashed hard.

Once the plans were made for Dani to come to my house, I immediately started scheming ideas for a photo shoot. The last time I did a mini-session of her (remember these?!) she ended up winning a Cute Kid contest. I think she'd win again......I'm just sayin'.

These were actually taken in my kitchen in front of a half wall next to my patio door. It was late afternoon and I was losing the available light pretty fast...so I had to work quickly. And with a 2-year-old, it was probably a pretty good idea. I fired off about 20 frames and ended up with some pretty amazing shots in the little time that I had. This one was, hands down, my absolute favorite!!
Now, if I could just get my nephew for a couple hours........