Howling of an entirely different kind was happening downstairs. Gary’s friend Kennedy Cox had stopped by and decided to try out his new joy buzzer on poor Demi. He grinned with glee as the shock made Demi nearly jump out of her shoes.
It upset Demi so much that she started crying.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kennedy said, though he had a big smirk on his face. “I thought a big Captain Hero like you could take anything.”
Demi just ignored that remark and walked away. She wasn’t going to let Kennedy ruin her evening. After all, it was time to bring out Aurora’s birthday cake. Everyone gathered around for the first birthday in the new house. Lennan brought Aurora in and helped her blow out the candles. With a quick spin and a burst of confetti, she grew into a child!
After receiving a new ‘do from the magic mirror, Aurora sat pretty for a picture. Lennan noted how much she looked like her brother Kyle.
Aurora had to go to school right away the next day. No time for fun! Right after she got home, her mother helped her with homework. Aurora sat on the cold stone floor wishing her desk weren’t all the way upstairs. Why couldn’t they go back to the old house where things made more sense?
Behind her, Grandpa Gary mopped up an unidentifiable puddle of liquid. Aurora guessed that Grandpa hadn’t made it to the bathroom on time.
After the kids were in bed, the oldsters gathered in the music room to play some smooth jazz. Grandpa Gary was a whirlwind on the drums.
The next few days passed uneventfully. Maura meditated through her second pregnancy while everyone else took care of the baby Mia. Mia became a toddler in that time, but no one bothered to take a picture of it. (Woops.)
One morning Kyle was surprised to find his sister Aurora sitting in the dining room while he read the morning paper.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” he asked.
“Yeah, but I missed the bus. Can I go to a movie?”
“Are you kidding? You’d better not miss any more school, kiddo. Do you know what would happen if you did?”
“No.”
“The social worker would come and take you away. You AND Mia. And then what would we do?”
Aurora shrugged. “Have more babies?”
Kyle just sighed and shook his head. Suddenly he heard shrieks of pain coming from the living room. He dropped the newspaper and ran to see what was happening, Aurora close on his heels. They found Maura going into labor, writhing around and making the most unearthly sounds. For a moment Kyle regretted saying that he wanted another baby. But it was too late now!
Maura gave birth to a little girl with blond hair and green eyes, just like Mia, but the lighter skin tone of her father Kyle.
“What should we name her?” Maura asked. But before Kyle could answer, Maura gave out another shriek, causing Kyle to jump five feet in the air.
“What?” he cried. “What is it?”
“I think I’m having another one!”
Sure enough, Maura gave birth to a second child, this time a baby boy! He had green eyes and RED hair — the first red-haired baby born to the Shanley family.
“Honey, we’re going to need another crib,” Maura said, holding up her new baby boy.
Kyle managed a weak smile before he passed out on the floor.
After Kyle had been revived, he held his new babies and tried to think of some good names. Maura suggested “Parker” for the boy.
“I like that,” Kyle said, “Parker and…Jacinda.”
Maura smiled, pleased with her new babies. She decided not to tell Kyle that she wanted another one already.
(Gameplay notes: That’s right, there are NINE people living in Shanley Hall. I thought there was no way she could have twins with seven people in the house, so my jaw dropped when I saw the message about there being TWO babies on the way. I did have to buy a third crib and move the changing table out into the hallway. I’m liking the new house so far (the layout isn’t too terribly different from the old house, but it is a bit smaller), but I miss the old one. I was used to it.
About the baby names, I decided to name them myself since I hadn’t named kids in awhile and felt the urge. ;-) I’ll go back to using your suggestions for the rest of the Shanley Hall babies, so feel free to keep making them!
Also, stories about the Shanley Hall family will be under the category “Shanley Family” from now on, although the stories up to now will remain under “Legacy Challenge”. When I start the University Legacy Challenge, I’ll create a new category for that, too. That way I can keep both lines of the Shanley family separate.
Look for another townie update soon — I’m almost finished with second semester. Until then, Happy Simming!)
OMG> Another update! I told you I was in LOVE! lol. Jen I dunno how I could complete my week without a few updates from you and Mt Geneva. Anyways, I’m off to play Kollar Island. Keep up the updates! I love the twins! :) CYA.
BTW I love the new house. Will it be available for download soon? And will the updated Shanley Manor be available for download as well? I am planning on a downloading spree in the holidays, so watch out peoples! lol
nice as always Jen!
btw I can’t see orlando either in my list of teens, i dunno why…. :(
Great update Jen!!
I love the names:
Sydney
Ashley
Jannah
and STockard (teehee)
Just some suggestions!
Oh wow, g. 11 gave you twins eh?
Good prelude to the new house.
Gonna test out my dorm that I made so I’m gonna play now :)
Dustyn – Shanley Manor is actually up for download (both furnished and unfurnished) at the Sims 2 Exchange. The new one, Shanley Hall, isn’t there yet, but I can upload it if you want! Hope you’re having fun with Kollar Island.
Lorna – That’s weird…are you playing a different neighborhood, by any chance, one that has different townies from the usual? I have no idea what could be happening. :-/ Maybe they have something on the BBS or the TSR Forums. I’ll take a looksee.
Lindsey – Hm, where have I seen the name ‘Stockard’ before? ;-) Great name, though. Thanks for the suggestions!
PRMami – Actually it’s my 10th generation that had twins — just too late for me to count them for points! Darnit. I hope you’re enjoying University!
Aw, I missed the Shanley family when you didn’t update! It must be weird for you playing them in a brand new house. It should be at least semi-exciting, though, since you have all the cool new “university” furnitures! I think my least favorite part is furnishing houses, I’m glad the Shanley Manor is furnished, I can move one family in there!
Jen, do you know when the University Legacy Challenge will be posted?
Aww! So cute, if only the twins had come first…
Oh well, never mind. Great post, I love reading them in more of a story mode, it’s very cool. And I loved the picture of the band! Go Grandpa, go! I want to see some pictures of toddler Mia, I bet she’s adorable! :D
Leslie – Pinstar said he would need a week to playtest the new challenge before he posted the rules, so if he’s on schedule, that would mean the rules come out tomorrow or Wednesday. I can’t wait! Are you going to play it, too?
Helen – I would post some pics of toddler Mia, but I forgot to take some, and she’s already a child now. Doh. She was pretty cute, though — she looked a lot like her great aunt Scottie.
BTW, I don’t think I can stand to age Sims with elixir anymore, because it leads to weird things like Mia’s great aunt looking like she’s still 25. I think I like a bit more realism in my game. ;-)
Defitnitely! I know I haven’t been able to post that often but I’ll defitnately do the challenge and hopefully post about it! Does it involve a continuation of the original Legacy challenge? I kinda want to start fresh… ;_; I’m so excited!
I think you can start fresh with a brand new CAS-created Sim. Those who have completed the original Legacy Challenge have the option of sending their 10G heir to college first before having them start their own legacy. I’m excited, too! I’ll post the rules as soon as they’re released. :-)
Man, Kennedy is such a jerk sometimes. >_>; He always was insulting my other sims, even (actually, -especially-) the ones he was friends with. (Demi’s face is funny in that picture, though.)
When I first saw the fire, and read part of the caption (not all of it, but some of it), I can’t believe how emotional I got. (Something along the lines of “noo! The houuusee! Why?!”)…then I read the rest of the caption and felt kind of silly.
Wow, nine people?! How lucky! (Call me crazy, but I like having my Sim’s houses super-full. That eight-person limit is a curse!) Is that an expansion pack thing, or just a game glitch? Because if it’s the former, I think I might have to change my mind about the getting that EP. >_>; (Though, if it’s the latter, I’ll just have to work at getting twins with seven people in the house. :D)
The band is looking good. I like the cello!
Oh, yeah, I forgot to add on to my previous comment: Would it be okay if I tried to start a LiveJournal feed for GfMG (woo, acronym!) using the RSS link? I noticed it down below in the tinytext, and thought it might be neat.
Wow, Jen! 9 people? How stuffed! My game goes slow with 6 or 7 people in the house. Since I don’t have the Expansion yet, I don’t really know what’s different. So, does the expanison let you have more than 8 people in the house? How weird! Anyways…Congrats on the twins! Too bad that they didn’t come first. Even though, Mia is pretty cool! I agree with you, it’s too bad that she didn’t have red hair just like Nia! Well keep up the great work! I can’t wait to read more about the Shanleys and the Townies! ;-)
Hullo! I’ve been following your Legacy and other Sim stories for a while, thought I should finally drop you a line and let you know how much I enjoy them. :D I had to restart my own Legacy, now I’m just about ready to send my 2nd Gen to their University. Thank you for writing all these stories!
Jen- you said that you did a renovation on the Shanley Manor? Is it still furnished like that, etc? Or did that all disappear when the Shanley’s moved out so recently? I love your houses, your blog, and your stories. Keep it up! I’m, for one, an addict.
Whoa… 9 in the house. I did hear somewhere that now maxis allows as many sims as long as the computer has the capability. Congrads tho. And I just LOVE the manor. It’s got a really cool exterior design.
btw… my brother came back from his trip… so I’ll be back to playign sims and posting at my blog^^ ANd He actually got University for me! Im so happy
Blu – I think my having 9 people in the house is a game glitch (or maybe my computer can handle more than 8 because of my upgraded video card, because I know I couldn’t have more than 8 before). I’m just glad this didn’t happen when the challenge was still going — I would have gone nuts trying to micromanage 9 people. 8 is bad enough! Also, I don’t know too terribly much about RSS feeds, but feel free to do whatever you like with that RSS link! It was just part of my template, so I kept it. :)
Jessica – Yeah, my game goes slow with more than 6 people in the house as well, but at least the Shanleys aren’t on that buggy lot anymore. It does seem a lot better! (no pun intended)
Kay – Hi and thanks for your comment! I’m sorry to hear you had to restart your Legacy. Have a good time with University. :)
Dustyn – You’re right, I did refurbish Shanley Manor one more time after I uploaded it to the Exchange. I didn’t tear down any walls, just redecorated a few rooms. If you want that refurbishing, I can upload it for you. I just have to clean it out — I packaged it just before I moved the Shanleys out, and it’s at 145 MB (!). And thanks as always for your nice comments!
Janice – I think you’re right about why I can have 9 Sims — I think it’s because I upgraded my video card about a month ago. And yay, you got University! And you’ll be posting again! Will you continue with your Legacy family?
Hey Jen. Yeh I’ll be continueing! I was just checkign out the features in university today, As I said in the comment in the other post. So I’m looking forward to seding my g5/g6 legacy kids to uni^^