Dear Best Friend, I Love You.
I have no idea where to even begin this post. Literal, legit, writer’s block. This is about my best friend…why is it so hard to try to find words to talk about how awesome she is. I have zero issues filling up a post about a family that I’ve only spent a couple hours with. But where do I even start trying to write about someone I’ve spent the last sixteen years with?
This girl and I have experienced just about every major life milestone together, usually not from the same city or even the same state. Surviving high school, boyfriends, break ups, our first job (shout to Texas Roadhouse), moving off to college, following bands across Texas, co-ed drama, graduating college, getting our first big-girl jobs, having our first big-girl bills, meeting our husbands (she introduced me to mine <3), planning weddings, learning to love red wine, having babies, buying houses, and literally everything else in between. You would think that after all of this I could write 500 words about our session??? And I could. But I can’t trivialize our friendship by simply chatting about how much fun I had shooting her maternity and family pictures.
I could tell you how adorable her son is…but…duh. I could tell you how it makes my heart melt that he calls me ChaCha (because my maiden name is Charlie, and his momma leaves me voicemails that say "Da-ni Cha-Cha-Cha!") and runs to me as soon as he sees me.
I could tell you that seeing her LITERALLY glowing with that little baby in her belly makes my throat lump up because she’s such an incredible momma.
I could tell you that at 35 weeks pregnant, I had to tell her to stick out her belly because it's barely showing. And that I constantly over analyze how high or low she’s carrying or what’s she’s craving because she’s, once again, torturing me for nine months by not finding out if they’re having a boy or a girl.
I could tell you that I love the way her husband looks at her and their boy.
I could tell you that I was secretly really nervous to take these photos because Kelly is an extremely talented photographer and artist. She’s been my greatest sounding board and an incredible support throughout the building of this little dream of mine.
I could tell you that we’ve come a long way since taking pictures “in the crotch of the tree” (as my grandmother called it) before Homecoming in my front yard.
But if you’re reading this, it’s probably because you know Kelly, and you love her, and you’re already very aware of how amazing she is. I laugh at her all the time because it’s impossible to go anywhere with her without her seeing someone she knows. The phrase “never met a stranger” was coined for Kelly Butts Wahlheim. If you’ve ever been Kelly’s friend, you’ll always be Kelly’s friend. I’m just super, ridiculously lucky to call her my best friend.
