This girl. Friends for 10 years. Roommates and wardrobe-sharers for three of them. We've been on many a 10-hour road trip from College Station to the panhandle, cruising in her old red mustang, singing our hearts out. We've seen each other through breakups, seasons of unknown, seasons of having it all together, seasons of not. Our weddings were two weeks apart.

I feel like I can describe all of my really close friendships in a few words, and Lauren is my 'kick your ass into high gear, be the no-bullshit badass you truly are' kinda friend. She tells it like it is and inspires me to be confident. She's the one who called me up out of the blue and told me I needed to break up with my at-the-time boyfriend if I didn't want to be miserable for the rest of my life, and sure as hell, she was right. I drove to his house and broke up with him the next day, and met Andrew 6 months later. Bless her.

I've watched Lauren and Jake's story unfold from the beginning and when she sent me the sonogram picture to tell me she was pregnant, I about fainted. Watching her get excited about welcoming this little girl makes me so happy. The weekend I was up at her family's ranch for the baby shower, we wanted to sneak in a short maternity session, but lo and behold, it was a dreary 17 degrees. We went for it anyway - grabbed a gorgeous coat and a warm blanket and headed out into the freezing cold for five quick minutes of photos while Jake kept the truck warm for us. Charlotte Joy is going to grow up to be a strong, confident, hard-working, beautiful girl and I just cannot wait to meet her.