1.3: Birthdays Galore!

HEY EVERYONE!!!

Yes, I've been gone a long time. Again. Yes, I'm sorry. Again. Let's just jump on in, shall we?

We last left off with dad taking care of a serious monster problem in Ryllo & Adler's room. Let's see what the boys are up to now!

Oh. Right. Another monster. It was at this time that I finally realized there was a nightlight that you can put in the kids rooms to keep the monsters at bay. I plopped one in their room after this incident. Fingers crossed!

Markus & Lauren continue to be precious and make plenty of time for each other, despite having their hands full with two boys and a baby girl. Lauren's social need was getting pretty low so Markus was on hand to help take care of it.

The boys have been doing a great job of working through their aspirations and raising their grades. I *think* this photo was snapped to indicate Adler receiving an A in school.

Lauren's garden is coming along nicely. She's trying really hard to get each type of plant. I still don't see that happening but she's trying. I've decided to stick to base game plants only because she does have the 3 kids at home and dad works and it's hard for her to get away for extended periods of time...especially later on, but we will get to that later!

Markus is rolling right along with the entertainer career. I think he's at level 4 or 5 in this picture.

Wait....what's that noise? I sense a disturbance in the force....what is going on here....what's happening....it sounds like a stampede heading for the The Sims 4....WHAT IS GOING ON?!

A;FIEHA;EIFHA;FIEH!!!! TOOOOOODDDLLEEEERRRSSS!!!!

TODDLERS?! TODDLERS!!!!!! 

*Deep breaths* Ok. Now that that's out of my system, yes, it's true. Toddlers are here! Little Kelsey hopped out of her bassinet and landed as this CUTE AS A FREAKING BUTTON little toddler! She inherited the wild trait as she aged up.

After a short nap, her first venture into the world of skills was potty training.

Kelsey: Um...mommy....do you really have to stand there and watch me...?

Lauren: *Oblivious cheering and words of encouragement*

Next up was a little play time! I find this interaction a little weird. It's super cute, but it's also a little...weird. It's weird how the toddler just, like, appears places. First they lie down and I don't really know why because then they just teleport to a standing position. Toddler appears between on mom's back/in front of her without any real show of transition to tell us how she gets from place to place. Idk. It's hard to explain but it's weird. But then you get moments like this so I'm still totally in love with it.

Next up was another nap. Playing and potty training can sure wear a girl out! Also....I freaking LOVE the toddler beds.

Whoa. Hell hath no fury like a hungry Sims toddler!!

Another new interaction that I love is that the parents can put the kiddos to bed - the little kiss on the forehead is precious. It had been a long first day of toddler exploration and it was finally bedtime.

The next morning it was daddy that had to get up with Kelsey and give her some breakfast. Of course she found her food more fun to play with than to eat.

This picture of Ryllo is to say that he has officially completed his childhood aspiration! Rambunctious Scamp in the books!

After dinner Lauren realized Kelsey was really stinky. I then realized all I had in the house were showers so the downstairs shower was sold and a bathtub was purchased in its place. Totally worth it. Bubble bath interaction is ADORABLE.

Adler was progressing nicely with his aspiration as well. Working on that creativity skill! Also, Grinch pjs ftw <3

What?! Kelsey's throwing a tantrum?! That NEVER happens! 

Just kidding. It happens about as frequently as the monsters. She requires a lot of attention and care, which, as I referenced above, is part of the reason why I decided to stick to base game plants vs hunting for all of the other plants. Lauren can only be away from home so much. And, aside from that, taking care of this little tot makes her pretty much permanently exhausted! Then again....I don't even know why I'm justifying this decision to any of you because it's not gonna happen cause I'm a terrible gardener... :P

Birthday! The time had come for Markus to enter the world of adulthood. Lauren was on hand to help celebrate and made a special cake just for the occasion!

Kelsey was tired of her tantrum going unnoticed so she took matters into her own hands and climbed down the stairs to find mom and dad. Have I mentioned that these are the best toddlers yet? Because these are the best toddlers yet.

This picture is to show that Ryllo has also received an A in school! Completed aspiration and A student?! You, sir, are a boss!

Looks like his achievements came just in time because the next day was his birthday! 

Everyone say hi to teenage Ryllo! I'm contemplating having an heir vote for the gen 2 heir so I just used Create a Random Sim to generate him a random aspiration for now. It will change if he's chosen as heir. For now, he has gained the squeamish trait and the Bestselling Author aspiration.

Kelsey's tantrum was due to the fact that she was hungry so she helped herself to a piece of cake on the couch. I love that they're so much more independent and can climb on chairs/couches!

Now that she's gaining movement skill and independence, she walks all over the house! She's still not quite perfect yet and stumbles here or there. Here she is, once again, making her way to the kitchen to get a piece of cake. She gets intense sugar highs and then crashes making her angry. She's hooked now....I've created a monster!

Next stop on the birthday train was for Lauren's adult birthday! It was a lonely celebration since everyone was at work/school,  but still a celebration regardless!

Kelsey decided to take a nap on the couch next to big brother Ryllo. Ummm....can you say precious?! I promise, he's not grumpy because of her. He had a bad day at school :(

This is just Adler, finishing his 5th drawing type on the activity table! Artistic Prodigy aspiration officially complete! These kiddos are rock stars! So far I'm 2/3 for A grades AND completed aspirations!

The nice thing about having big brother Ryllo in the room with Adler is that he's there when the monsters attack. The nightlight does seem to be reducing my encounters with monsters a bit which is awesome! They're still frequent fliers around the house, though.

Our last stop on the birthday train is for Kelsey's child birthday. She was actually a really fun toddler and I'm not quite ready for her to take on childhood yet! But the time has come and I AM ready to get moving toward generation 2! Let the celebration commence!

Allow me to present child Kelsey! She, like big brother Adler, inherited dad's dark skin with mom's light hair. Upon aging up she also received the Artistic Prodigy aspiration. She recieved geek for her childhood trait.

That's it for this installment! Tune in next time to find out if Kelsey can make me 3/3 on completed aspirations and straight A's! As always, I thank you all for your patience during my long hiatus. I'll try to update sooner than half a year later....but I'm not making any promises :P Happy Simming!

1.2: One Boy, One Girl

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Roots! As always, I appreciate everyone's patience during my (super super super long) hiatus. Sorry it's been so long, real life had to take priority.

So let's jump back into this thing! As a recap, our founder Lauren is a farmer, she is to live off the land and not get a job. She married a super hunky dude named Markus who has a job in the entertainment career. I'm not honestly sure if the "do not get a job" rule applies to the spouse as well or just the heir, but meh. I don't really care. When we last left off Lauren & Markus had just brought their first child, a boy named Ryllo, into the world. And then Lauren promptly passed out from exhaustion! Here she is seen making her way to the bedroom to get some much needed sleep!

Once she got some rest, she and Markus decided to get to work on baby number 2. The rules require that they have one boy and one girl.

Their woohoo was successful meaning Abernathy baby #2 was officially on its way! Mama was super thankful this pregnancy didn't take 4 tries like her first one!

Dad made sure to get some time in with his little man. Markus is a great daddy, this has been one of my favorite families to play.

After tending to Ryllo's needs, Markus decided to try out the new ice cream maker. This was, obviously, taken when I installed Cool Kitchen Stuff way back when. I think he made vanilla, but I can't remember.

Markus & Lauren made sure to keep the love alive. They autonomously love on each other more than any other save. I love how into each other these two are! It's just so darn cute to watch <3

Of course Lauren's pregnancy was coming right along! She made sure to give some love to Ryllo before baby #2 arrived.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm thinking this photo was taken to highlight the fact that this family has gone through, like, 5 tvs by this point. They just have no luck, their tvs keep breaking!

Trimester 3 came really quickly! It seemed like I blinked and suddenly it was almost time for the baby to arrive!

Lauren passed much of her pregnancy playing a little Sims Forever. I love watching my sims play The Sims. It amuses my soul <3

It was in the middle of her morning gardening that Lauren went into labor! Up to the nursery she went to welcome their second child!

And baby #2 is....another boy! Not what I was hoping for, but oh well. They make cute kiddos so I'm totally ok with trying for another one! This little cutie is Adler!

Speaking of cuties, Ryllo finally aged out of his bassinet. He turned out SUPER cute, one of the cutest child sims I've had in game. Markus & Lauren's genetics create gold together! As I've done with all of my legacies, I used Create a Random Sim to roll his child trait and his child aspiration. He ended up with the Rambunctious Scamp aspiration and the Bookworm trait.

Lauren is in love with her newest little addition!

After giving Adler some attention, she needed to tend to some cleaning and repairs around the house. It was getting pretty grody in spots.

Back on the gardening grind. I realized that one of the goals of the founding generation is to create a garden with every type of plant. Knowing me....I don't think I see that happening lol.

Markus was rolling in the promotions! This came after he had a super day at work and he came home looking confident as f*ck.

One of my favorite aspects of TS4 vs. TS3 is that family dinners are a real thing. Yes it could happen in TS3 but half the time, by the time everyone got to the table, at least one sim was already done or not everyone ate at the same table. I love watching my families sit down together and talk about their day. Tonight's topic was Ryllo's day at school!

Seeing that there was a matter of a girl still needing to be born into the family, Markus and Lauren happily got to work on making that happen!

Ryllo kept himself occupied by practicing his typing. 1/4 hours down, 3 to go!

And baby #3 is on its way! Once again, this pregnancy was immediate - yay for no sad moodlets!

Mama couldn't wait to run and tell dad the news! She couldn't wait to welcome another little Abernathy into the family!

Meanwhile, in Ryllo's room, poor little man was having a panic attack!

Which, of course, could only mean one thing. *Sigh* This feature is getting old really fast.

As is customary, Ryllo ran into Markus & Lauren's room to ask them to spray the monster under his bed. And like every good sim daddy, Markus went to the rescue!

I've determined the hug is an automatic response to the parents spraying the monster. Which I actually love. It's a nice touch and makes the obnoxious constant monsters slightly less painful to deal with. Only slightly.

Markus wasn't going to let Lauren hog all of Adler's time! He was pretty smitten too!

The pee pee walk is still one of my favorite features of this game. So cute! :)

Lauren loves using her harvest in recipes when she cooks for her family!

Ryllo: It was pretty cool, mom. The monster had tentacles and was huge. I tried to talk to him but he didn't wanna be friends. I'm really glad dad came in to spray him, he was pretty stinky.

Lauren: I think it's time to return your bed, sweetie.

This pregnancy was pretty rough for Lauren. She had some pretty wicked morning sickness. Poor thing was cleaning toilets constantly.

Part of Markus' aspiration required him to practice either guitar or violin. By the look on his face, it seems like it's going...well...

He also had practice his comedy. I noticed him bonk himself over the head multiple times with the microphone. I laughed out loud.

Lauren passed this pregnancy the same way she passed the previous two. Lots and lots of Sims Forever. It's totes her fave!

Ryllo was being a boss and progressing right along with his aspiration! I love the playground equipment in this game, I just wish there were more than those couple of items.

Surprise! Child Adler! He rolled the Artistic Prodigy aspiration and the Perfectionist trait. He went right to work on that art table, he was anxious to get his aspiration going! He also turned out adorable, I love his combination of dark skin and light hair. *Tries not to play favorites...*

Adler and Ryllo became quick friends. They chose to eat dinner together that night and catch up on the busy goings on of their childhood days.

*Gasp* What's wrong, Adler?!

Oh. Wow. Would you look at that. A monster under Ryllo's bed. How unexpected. 

Ryllo: Mom! It's back! The monster is back! You've gotta come see it!

Adler: Yeah! It's slimy and gross and wicked cool! Come look, mom!

Lauren: *Gottapeegottapeegottapee* I'll be right there, boys...I just need to go to the bathroom and get the spray first...

Lauren went to the rescue, after taking care of her bladder, and received her thank you hugs in return.

The next day baby #3 decided it was ready to come out! An exhausted Lauren slept most of the pregnancy away before heading to the nursery to welcome her new little one, excited to have another baby to care for!

They finally got their little girl! Therefore, this will be the last baby for Markus & Lauren. Everyone say hi to Kelsey Abernathy! Lauren is ecstatic to have a little girl to coo over!

Meanwhile, in the boys room...

Uuuggghhh. Thanks for taking care of it so Lauren could focus on giving birth, Markus. Maybe someday you can get through a full night's sleep. At least I'll never get tired of the cute hugs.

And that's where we will end this update tonight! Again, thanks to all for their patience during the hiatus! I am glad to be back! Hope everyone is having an awesome summer, happy simming!