Last we left the Shanley family, my 8th gen heir Lennan had just married Demi Love the policewoman and produced a son, Kyle. That update focused on Lennan and Demi, but what have the rest of the Shanleys been up to?

Soon after the birth of Kyle, proud grandparents Tebbany and Gary were due to become elders. Before that happened, however, I had Gary paint a portrait of Tebbany. So far I’ve managed to get portraits painted of all my Legacy heirs except for one — Patrick, my 5th gen heir. He died unexpectedly before I managed to capture his portrait, darn him.

“My painting…it’s so lifelike!”

Poor Cort, my 7th gen spare, contracted food poisoning and spent two days pretty much living in the bathroom. Those Sloppy Sims just don’t care if they eat disgusting rancid food. Thing is I can’t remember if I directed him to eat it (before it went rancid) or if he was just hungry and grabbed whatever was around. I’ve seen visiting Sims sit down to eat already-rancid food — that’s a little disturbing.

“Why on earth did I eat those pork chops…*moan*”

Meanwhile Cleo was going through the usual trials and tribulations associated with those awful teenage years — gigantic pimples, first kiss fever, homework stacked to the skies. I was hoping her special alien DNA might grant her immunity from zits, or at least make other Sims react strangely to her, but no such luck. She lived a normal teenaged life.

“Aw man, why don’t they make concealer in my shade of green?”

Here Gary, now an elder, takes a break from building skills to tuck in his grandson Kyle. I’m a big old sap, so it thought it was cute.

“Maybe someday you’ll have a gigantic head, just like Grandpa…”

I had my four Knowledge Sims (Tebby, Gary, Cort, and Demi) working ’round the clock to build their skills to fulfill the Max All Skills impossible want for each of them. Cort was the first to max his skills, even though Gary and Demi already had a few skills maxed when they moved in. Here’s Cort making candies to get his last skill point while Tebby the Elder shows the punching bag who’s boss.

“Mmmm…chocolate…”

Meanwhile Gary was out in the living room working on his Mechanical skill (Demi was using the surgical dummy to do the same thing in the skill-building room). Behind him, Cleo plays the piano in her underwear, and in the foreground Scottie chats on the phone. Being a Popularity Sim, she also wants to hold parties, but I seem to have a bug on my lot with the “Throw Party” phone interaction — it no longer works. I had multiple Sims try to throw a party, but all they did was dial the phone and then “jump” out of the interaction. So between that and the “Find Own Place” interaction not working, I’m starting to worry. I can’t wait to move my family off of this slow, buggy lot!

“Oh, Goopy, you’re such a goof. Wanna come over for some rancid pork chops?”

Finally Kyle’s birthday rolled around. His aunt Cleo helped him blow out the candles.

“Wheeeee!”

A couple of days later, Scottie became an adult. She had a job as an EMT when she was a teen, so when she grew up she was promoted to Nurse. I don’t know why, but I have a ton of Shanleys in the medical profession. It makes sense for Gary and Tebby, since they’re Knowledge Sims, but why was Scottie the Popularity Sim in that career? I have no idea. I also had Demi in the medical field for awhile until she found a job in — what else? Law Enforcement!

Anyway, here’s Scottie as an adult.

“Doesn’t ‘Dr. Scottie Shanley’ have a nice ring to it?”

Moving right along, I raced through Kyle’s toddler years — actually, I didn’t really race since I was busy micromanaging all of the Knowledge Sims, but I didn’t take many pictures, so it looks like I raced — and he became a child. At this point I had 8 Sims living in Shanley Manor, which I hate (tooo slooooow!!!), and they’re ALL in the picture below (along with Goopy GilsCarbo, who was visiting Scottie).

“Congratulations on growing up, honey. Have you thought about who you want to marry yet?”

Yep, I have Kyle’s future wife all picked out for him — Maura Simpson, the firefighter. It’s never too early to start becoming friends with your future spouse, is it?

“So Dad tells me you’ll stay 25 years old until somebody marries you? That’s weeeeeird!”

The funny thing is that I had Lennan become friends with her first, before Kyle was even born, and now he wants to flirt and fall in love with her. Darned Romance Sims! Of course, he has no idea she’s meant for Kyle, but ewww. That’s your future daughter-in-law, buddy! I’ll just have to make sure I don’t accidentally click on a romantic interaction for one of them, or it’ll be jealousy city when Kyle grows up.

Speaking of weird, the relationship between Cort and Cleo has reached new levels of closeness. I found him sleeping in bed with her one night. She’s a teenager, so there’s no funny stuff going on between them, but their relationship score is 100/100, and they seem awfully fond of one another. They’re not blood-related, so I’ll have to be careful with them when she becomes an adult, or they could very easily fall in love. All it takes is one slip of the mouse-button!

*snoring noises*

For the longest time, Tebbany had a want to see the ghost of Pao, so whenever he was haunting, I had her chasing him around the house. It took about three separate nights of chasing, but she finally got to see him, i.e. be frightened by him. Hooray!

“Haha, I have more best friends than you do! And I’m not even alive!”

Here’s a portrait of Kyle after I gave him some new hair. I can’t figure out who he looks like. He has his dad’s nose for sure. Possibly his mom’s mouth. Or is it his dad’s mouth? Eh, who knows. All I know is that he looks a little bit weird. I can’t figure out if he’s cute or not. We’ll have to wait and see how he looks as a teen.

“So what’s this Elixir of Life I keep hearing about? Does it taste bad?”

One thing I should mention before I wrap up and go play — the household was getting to be so slow with 8 Sims in it that I decided to move some of them out. I had gotten the Impossible Want point from Cort for maxing all his skills, so I switched over to Autumn House and had his mother Vesta ask him to move in. He brought with him Scottie and Cleo (who had become an adult the day before). I can’t really get any points from them anyway since they’ll still be alive when the challenge is over (so no platinum headstones), and there’s no way I was going to go for their Impossible Wants (Have 30 Best Friends and Have 10 Kids, respectively). I couldn’t kill them, either, because I have a tough time doing that to Sims I like. So now Autumn House is completely full. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back and play them.

Here’s the rundown of who’s left in the house:

Tebbany – 7th gen heir, Elder
Gary – 7th gen, Elder
Lennan – 8th gen heir, Adult
Demi – 8th gen, Adult
Kyle – 9th gen, child

So I’m off to play now, need to reach 10th gen tonight if possible! Thanks for reading, and wish me luck!