Pregnant Joanna Gaines Reflects on the End of Fixer Upper and Her Renewed Focus on Family

"This season of life has been rewarding, challenging, unbelievably fast," Joanna says

You’re not alone — Joanna Gaines can’t believe the Fixer Upper finale is here, either!

Tonight marks the end of the expecting mom and husband Chip’s wildly popular HGTV show. Although they announced back in September that the fifth season would be their last, the series’ final installment crept up faster than the Gaineses expected.

“April felt like it was forever away, but somehow it snuck up on us,” Joanna writes in a post on her blog. “Time is funny like that, the days sometimes seem long, but the weeks, months and even years fly past us when we least expect it.”

WATCH THIS: Chip and Joanna Gaines Explain That None Of Their Success Comes Easy

Joanna says she has “really loved” this final season. In it, she and Chip took on their first apartment renovation, made over a cottage for a widow who wanted to be closer to her sons, designed an ADA-compliant home for a sweet family in need and more.

“We are grateful to all the families who joined in on this journey with us over the past five years — what an honor to be a part of their stories,” she says.

Magnolia

The designer goes on to say, “This season of life has been rewarding, challenging, unbelievably fast and furious and nearly everything in between,” calling out the couple’s many business ventures besides their TV show. From opening their restaurant, Magnolia Table, to writing both a cookbook (available April 24) and a forthcoming design book, the Gaines family has been busy expanding their home improvement empire.

And with another baby boy about to join the couple’s brood of four — Drake, 12, Ella, 11, Duke, 9, and Emmie Kay, 7 — Joanna says the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

“If you would have told me that I’d end this season of the show pregnant with our fifth baby, I would’ve laughed,” she writes. “With our little ones getting bigger, we had this gut feeling that it was time to step back and focus on them and our businesses here in Waco, Texas. And although that’s why we thought we decided to step away from the show, we now realize with this little one on the way that there was a bigger plan in place for us all along.”

Joanna is looking forward to her and Chip’s next steps, but she still admits that the end of this chapter “is really bittersweet for us.”

“Fixer Upper is the thing that introduced our family to yours, and every Tuesday night for the past five years, we have felt you rooting us on from the other side of the screen,” she says. “We’ve said it many times, but it’s worth saying again—thank you to everyone who has walked beside us on this journey.”

For Joanna’s full letter to fans, visit magnolia.com