Nick Lachey: Spending Time with Vanessa Is ‘Key’ to Our Marriage

11/26/2014 at 01:00 PM ET
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Things in the Lachey household are starting to get hectic.

With Nick and wife Vanessa‘s daughter due just after the holidays, the singer is counting down the days until they are officially a family of four.

“I’m very excited to be a dad again,” Nick, 41, tells PEOPLE. “My dream in life has always been to have a family. It’s surreal when it starts to happen before your eyes.”

With weeks to go until her arrival, the couple aren’t quite ready for baby girl’s birth just yet. “It’s all those logistical things — the nursery, the hospital stuff,” says Nick of their long to-do list.

Nick Lachey Vanessa Camden Disney
Courtesy Nick Lachey

But their biggest feat is preparing their firstborn, 2-year-old son Camden John, for the family’s new addition. “We’re getting Camden as ready as he can be so it’s not a total shock in his life,” Nick explains.

Although the toddler is showing interest — Camden “kisses [Vanessa’s] belly all the time and tells her he loves her,” the singer says — the couple realize he’ll still need time to adjust.

“Until she’s here and stealing his attention, that’s when the true reaction will happen,” admits Nick.

Fortunately, they’re not worried — Camden is “a sweetheart of a kid” and seems to have skipped the terrible twos.

“He’s very, very smart. He’s a lover. He’s a total boy. He’s into cars and balls and trucks,” says the proud papa. “He’s certainly discovering his voice and he’s not shy about letting us know when he’s not happy about something. But he’s far from a tyrant.”

The couple’s biggest challenge with two babies may be trying to find quiet time together. But despite the struggle, the VH1 Big Morning Buzz Live host and his actress wife are convinced keeping the romance alive is “always the key” in a relationship.

“You got to carve out time for each other. Life gets crazy and hectic and you can forget about each other,” shares Nick.

“It’s not like we go clubbing anymore. It’s pretty much dinner and a movie sometimes. As long as we’re spending time together, that’s the main thing.”

One thing that’s not going to take a backseat though is Nick’s career. He recently released his album, Soundtrack of My Life, and just took part in a new digital project called DreamJobbing, an online platform that allows everyday people to try out for their fantasy job.

As for his dream job, Nick laughs, “I always wanted to be the head trainer for the Bengals football team. But it’s such a good thing that I didn’t end up doing it because I was awful.”

RELATED GALLERY: Hot Guys Profess Their Love for Their Beautiful Women

 — Anya Leon and Matthew Cole Weiss

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Showing 31 comments

mer on

That’s just one beautiful family! I love how they both talk about themselves, enjoying the life they’ve created together.

Ava on

Camden is so cute!

Katie on

What a beautiful family! Vanessa looks like a normal pregnant woman. Not too small. I like to see this. She makes pregnancy more real for average women!

CallMeMaybe on

What a beautiful family and so normal. Getting away from the circus that surrounded his marriage to Jessica Simpson is the best thing that ever happened to Nick. Best wishes to them all!

nyu0385 on

The key to a happy marriage is spending quality time with your significant other? Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Kimberly on

Such a beautiful time in a family bringing new life into the world. Enjoy these precious moments with your beautiful son and soon to be baby girl. Time sure goes by in a blink of an eye and they are grown up before you know it! I wish my two were this little again! Many blessings always to this beautiful family!

Julia on

darling family. Give the terrible twos a bit longer to appear. They often rear their ugly head closer to 3….

Anonymous on

Katie-I am a “normal” woman and gained only 17lbs with my son-total weight was 138lbs at 5’7″. I ate balanced meals/snacks, didn’t eat everything in sight, did prenatal yoga and walked. Normal stuff. You don’t have to be a celeb to look great when pregnant or to lose the weight. Eating right and exercise works-who knew?! Blaming others for eating massive amounts of fast food and driving and sitting all day is the problem.

Jenna on

I love the Lachey family. They seem so happy & down to Earth. Such a sweet family.

Ashley on

Wow Anonymous! Arrogant much?! I ate healthy and exercised my whole pregnancy and still gained 30 pounds, which my dr. said was a healthy amount of weight to gain. I’m guessing either you have a fast metabolism or you didn’t take in enough calories to have only gained 17lbs but don’t call yourself normal because to gain less than 20 pounds during pregnancy isn’t normal. And don’t think that your lack of weight gain makes you superior to other women because you’re not!

NewYawka11 on

Wishing them luck for the birth of their baby girl! For many toddlers it’s not the terrible two’s, it’s more the terrible three’s. They’ll survive, we all do 🙂

Guest on

Dear Anonymous – I think Katie was just referring to the celeb Mom’s who seem to focus so much on being uber-thin. I’m sure your metabolism and life-habits are great but…aren’t you just a teeny bit obsessed yourself – tracking your weight gain during pregnancy oh-so-specifically to 17 pounds? Lighten up!

Carrie on

Beautiful family! Your baby girl will be blessed. Did anyone else realize that Nick has three hands in this picture?

Anonymous on

Re Guest: I know I gained 17lbs because I had regular weigh-ins at my obgyn appts-she was just fine with my weight! My son had a healthy birth weight. I think this woman looks great-just stating that normal comes in many forms. Gaining 30lbs is normal too. However it’s annoying when so many women think because a celeb didn’t gain 50-100lbs they’re starving themselves. Lose the weight right after? Lipo or starvation. Just saying I had no trainer or weight concerns- just good fresh food and exercise because I care about my health!

guest on

Vanessa Lachey looks fantastic and realistically so. In terms of weight gain 25 to 35lbs is within the “normal” range. That being said, the availability and affordability of “good fresh food ” depends on socioeconomic status. The fact is, food stamps and other comparable programs don’t value it. Indeed, the food on WIC is tge cheapest available in every store. My point is weight gain has many factors, but if you are working crazy hours then it’s difficult to monitor and afford healthier options.

Paula on

Sweet family. We breezed through the “twos” too–but the threes more than made up for it!

Sam on

When these Hollywood stars have been married for more than 30 years, then I’ll read the articles about how they keep their marriage successful.

Pnut on

The reason your kid didn’t go through the terrible twos is because it’s really the terrible threes. There’s an expression “the person who coined the term terrible twos had yet to meet a three-year-old.” And it’s the truth. Add a baby girl into the family. BOOM! Talk to us this time next year, Nick. xo

Jenb on

Camden is so so cute.. He looks like his dad but has his mom’s beautiful skin tone. My son never went through the terrible twos. Some kids don’t. Someone told me girls are more prone to go through terrible twos than boys.

Anonymous on

Good for Lachey family. Happy for them.

redtanns on

So what I’m hearing from Nick is that if he had carved out time for Jessica, and maybe treated her as an equal then they might still be married? Priorities…

Stace on

Remember, Jessica asked for the divorce. It was also around the time she garnered much fame. But from what it seems, they were complete opposites. He seems much happier now. Naturally.

Kathy on

Too bad he couldn’t have done all that for Jessica.

Julesy on

So happy to see Nick finding happiness with his family, Vanessa, Camden and the future baby!

Judy on

They’re such a cute family. I’m glad he found happiness in life.

libba on

Whatever who cares!!!!

Anonymous on

libba- Well, you, me, and 25 other people apparently. 😉

Maggie on

They look a lovely family. Cute photo.

Gigi on

Love this pic! They look like a regular family having a good time!

Shayla on

Wow. To look back at this now and see how they foreshadowed. Camden’s shirt says, “je t’aime Brooklyn” (I love you Brooklyn). Awesome how they snuck that in. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Jacqueline Susan Cote on

Such a beautiful family!!

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