Nick, Vanessa Lachey Celebrate Son Camden Going to Middle School

Vanessa and Nick Lachey‘s son is off to middle school!

The NCIS: Hawai’i star, 44, recently shared snaps via her Instagram Stories of her family of five celebrating her son Camden, 12, graduating from elementary school. In one picture, Vanessa can be seen kissing the tween on the cheek, as he adorns a stack of lei around his neck sent to him by his aunts from the Aloha State.

In the other picture, the proud mom posed with her husband and fellow Love Is Blind host, 51, and their three children. The Lacheys were all smiles as they surrounded the soon-to-be middle schooler.

“Middle school here we come!” Vanessa wrote in text over the second picture.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  

Vanessa and Nick are parents to three children: sons Phoenix, 8, and Camden, and daughter Brooklyn, 10. As a mom of three, things may get chaotic and busy, but Vanessa knows it all comes with the territory.

“We all have fails daily and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent,” she told PEOPLE in April 2019. “We all are constantly struggling daily, but that’s also the beautiful side of parenthood.”

The mom of three isn’t fully ready for her kids to become teenagers. During a Friday, Feb. 14 interview with Entertainment Tonight alongside her husband, she was asked how she’s feeling about her oldest son becoming a teenager this year. As soon as the question was read, Vanessa began to get emotional.

“That one’s going to get me,” Vanessa said, tearing up. “It’s going to get me because you know that this has been happening in the last couple months.” 

“They’re growing! I can’t answer this question, I have on fake eyelashes,” she continued. “I’m not nervous about the next phase, I’m excited. Everybody who has older kids talks about how it gets better. I’m hanging onto them still being little. And they’re still little now. So. I’m going to cry.” 

The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more!

Vanessa then became teary as her husband said, “I feel like I’m in Jerry Maguire when Roy Firestone makes Cuba Gooding Jr. cry. You’re not going to get me to cry, Roy!”

“It’s actually really… it’s such a beautiful question because I love — I know you do too — we love our children and we love watching them grow,” Vanessa explained. “But maybe it’s because NCIS:Hawai’i was cancelled and I was so sad. We were so sad we left Hawaii. That was our dream. And the silver lining to that is it’s been able to give us so much time with our kids.” 

Although she noted that her older son still acts like a kid for now, Vanessa added there’s so much she’s excited to experience with her kids once they get a little older.

“Camden is just…he’s 12 but he’s still like a 12-year-old boy. He watches Bluey with his brother and sister and they’re just still kids,” the star said. “And I’m like really holding onto it because at some point it does change … but I’m excited about girlfriends and boyfriends and driving and whatever.”