Challenges Behind Them, Chris Lane and Wife Lauren Celebrate 'Our Best Days' (Exclusive)

“I hope the honeymoon stage never stops. If it does, I’m out!”

Those words could come back to haunt any husband, but Chris Lane and Lauren Bushnell Lane now just burst into laughter when they’re reminded that’s exactly what Chris said five years ago, mere days before he and Lauren were to be married.

"I can assure you there was a time that the honeymoon stage definitely was not there!” says Lauren, now the mom to the Lanes’ two rambunctious boys, Dutton, 3½, and Baker, 2.

“I’m still here!” Chris assures.

And, of course, the 40-year-old hit-maker notes, he was only teasing when he and Lauren sat down in 2019 to talk to PEOPLE about their upcoming wedding and their future together. Five years later, it’s clear that their fun-loving side — Lauren also gives as good as she gets — is still part of the glue that binds them.

Related: Lauren Bushnell Lane and Chris Lane's Relationship Timeline

Yes, they agree, the honeymoon is over, especially with two little boys who like to snuggle in their king-sized bed. But what they have now, they say, is even better.

“I love her more today than I did the day we got married,” says Chris, “and I think that will only continue to grow as our family grows.”

The Lanes are talking while nestled in the cozy breakfast nook of their Nashville home, brightly decorated for Christmas. But as much as they’re celebrating this holiday season, they’re also celebrating this season of their life together. Recent years have delivered challenges to both the Lanes at work and at home, but Lauren, 34, says she now believes this is a time they’ll one day look back on as “our best days.”

Chris is thriving at a new label, pumped about a new crop of music and gearing up to join Rascal Flatts early next year for their much-anticipated reunion tour. Lauren, a potent social influencer with 1.4 million followers on Instagram, says she is newly focused on appreciating and enjoying her home life. And clearly, what she calls their two “little roaring dinosaurs” have turned into the focus of both their lives.

Not that parenthood hasn’t come with considerable adjustment. “I do feel like when we first had children,” says Lauren, “that was the hardest for me. There was this mourning of the life that we had built together. I was so happy because we had these beautiful children, but then all the things that made us fall in love, and the things we enjoyed doing together kind of had to take a back seat. And that was really hard especially the first two, probably three years.”

Chris admits being the primary breadwinner, especially in such an unpredictable profession, weighed heavily on him during that time.

“It's a business that can go away quickly if you don’t have hit songs,” he says. “So I think for me that was always just a worry. I want to make sure I can provide for my family in the way that I feel like I’m supposed to. I always felt like if I don’t say yes to this show, one day I'm not gonna get the opportunity to say yes to shows.”

In the earliest days of their marriage, Lauren frequently went out on tour with Chris, but the travel stopped when their boys arrived, and she had to grow accustomed to the separation.

“When he was gone, I didn't have what felt like a support system here,” she says. “I felt like I was just alone with kids here. We didn’t have a nanny or babysitter. I didn’t have any family here.”

But that changed a couple of years ago when her parents pulled up stakes in Oregon and moved into a house down the block from the Lanes. A nanny also now helps out when both Chris and Lauren have work obligations.

Having family near, says Lauren, “was always the piece missing for me about Nashville. I’m just very close with my family.” Their presence, says Chris, also has eased his worry when he’s away.

Though he admits he’s still trying to find a work-life balance, he’s also grateful to be “at the point in my career where I don't have to play so many shows a year like I was when we were first married. Even when we had Dutton, I was out on tour for most of that year.”

Fewer dates, of course, means more family time, and Chris is reveling in being what he calls “a dramatic dad.”

“Think WWE dramatic!” Lauren interjects.

Chris recounts how he picks up Dutton from his preschool: “As soon as we make eye contact, I’m jumping up and down. It’s honestly embarrassing for me …”

Says Lauren: “I get texts from other moms like, oh my gosh!”

But, says Chris, “Dutton loves it, so I keep doing it. He just gets that big ol’ smile on his face, and he runs up to me and jumps into my arms.”

Lauren adds: “It’s so sweet.”

Related: Chris Lane on the Toughest Part of Parenthood for Him: 'Our Little Man Does Not Like to Sleep'

Other dad moments happen in the bounce house in the couple’s backyard. “We get out here almost every afternoon,” says Chris, “and they want me to tackle them. They love tackling and jumping on me, and any time they jump on me, it doesn’t hurt, but I act like it’s the worst injury I’ve experienced, and they love that!”

Meanwhile, Lauren has been leaning into her homemaking role. Baking is her current obsession.

“Shoutout to Nicole Combs [Luke’s wife], because she brought me everything that you need for sourdough,” she shares. Ginger molasses cookies are another one of her oven’s frequent occupants.

During warmer months, she and the boys are in the backyard tending a vegetable garden. “It makes me happy, and I enjoy it,” she says. “It, like, seriously calms my nervous system, and it’s so fun with the boys. They love it.”

The family time has become so precious, Lauren reveals, that she’s been recently readjusting her priorities, putting a clothing-line venture on pause after a successful first drop this fall.

“I self-funded, so there’s no one else telling me what I can or can’t do,” she says. “I think when I launched it, I wanted a creative outlet. I am very entrepreneurial in my heart of hearts. But I just feel like I had this epiphany recently about how fast everything’s going with our kids and how fast they’re growing. And it just feels like the years are going by alarmingly quickly. So, I’ve been trying to slow down when it comes to everything, and it’s been very lovely.”

Family life obviously has a hold on both the Lanes’ emotions, and soberingly, they’ve come to realize the high stakes of their investment.

“Our kids can just be running around the house, laughing, tackling each other, and Lauren will just cry out of nowhere,” says Chris. “She’ll say, ‘If something ever happens to me, please make sure our boys know how much I love them.’”

Explains Lauren: “That is a weird thing that happens when you become a parent. It’s like your heart is outside of your body, and you somehow become very vulnerable.”

Serendipitously, Chris was pitched a song, titled “If I Die Before You,” that reflects all those fears. He immediately knew he had to have it. “It became one of those songs,” he says, “that I felt every part of that lyric.”

Now Chris’ latest single, the song continues to stir Lauren’s tears every time she hears it. “It’s just a bittersweet feeling because in order to relate to that song, you have to love somebody very deeply,” she says. “It’s so happy in a way that you have such a deep connection with another person, and you share a family, but yeah … then the puzzle is only complete with that person still in your life. Obviously, life doesn’t always go how you plan.”

And for the Lanes, there actually is a plan on record: Chris’ No. 1 hit, “Big, Big Plans.” Originally written to accompany his 2019 proposal to Lauren in her parents’ backyard, the lyrics foresee “a little house out on some hand-me-down land” and “a little island where we’d go to get tanned” and one day “take our kids.” Though not remotely little, their well-loved home and their regular retreats to Florida’s sunshine at least echo the spirit of those words, and Chris is proud that he nailed the plural nature of their future progeny.

“Here we are with two children,” he notes. “Could have messed up. Could have just been one, you know!”

Related: Lauren Bushnell Lane Debuts Brunette Hair on Glam CMA Awards Date Night with Husband Chris Lane: See Her Look!

When Lauren hears “Big, Big Plans” now, she says, “it always brings me back to earth and just makes me realize how much of our life has changed since that song. It’s so amazing to think back at that time. But then it’s also amazing to think about where we are now.”

And what are their big, big plans now?

For Chris, it’s the prospect of releasing what he considers “the best music I’ve ever had in my career … It’s kind of cliché to say that because I feel like every artist says that about what they have coming out next. But I truly feel like that in my heart of hearts. I think it will — fingers crossed — be career-changing songs.”

Both are also excited that Lauren and the boys will be able to join him on some of the dates of the Rascal Flatts tour. Dutton, who turns 4 in June, got to see Chris perform live for the first time at a recent Grand Ole Opry appearance, and his reaction delighted his dad.

Related: Rascal Flatts Reunite for 25th Anniversary Tour After Hiatus: 'We're Ready'

“I've never seen Dutton look at me like this,” Chris recalls. “When I walked off that stage, I saw his face, and he must have thought it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen. He just ran up to me and was like, ‘Daddy!’”

“He was so proud,” says Lauren. “It was very sweet. He was starstruck in a way.”

“It’s literally what it looked like,” Chris agrees. “It was so sweet.”

But leave it to a little boy to also keep this dad grounded. Ten minutes later, Lauren shares, Dutton found something else to captivate him: a backstage vending machine with some of his favorite orange crackers.

Chris just chuckles at the memory — and also at the way his life has turned out.

“I was definitely one of those guys who never saw myself getting married, never wanted kids — you know, the whole thing,” he says.

He takes stock of his surroundings — his wife by his side, the happy squeals coming down the hallway from his playful sons, their two dogs underfoot, the twinkling Christmas tree in the living room, the bounce house in the backyard.

“I’m so thankful that the good Lord did not listen to me when I said I didn’t want any of it,” he says. “I mean, look at this. We have a beautiful life.”

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