In short order, the next generation was born.  A little girl they named Helena.  Here’s her doting grandfather giving her a bottle.

Helena is destined to become the heir apparent.  Helpful when the first child is a girl and we’re playing a matriarchy here.  Means they don’t have to keep having spawn.  These babies are a pain :P

Hera and Trig did what newlyweds do best and got right back to work.  In no time, Hera was knocked up again.  Always best to have an heir and a spare ya know.

This pregnancy was a rough one as well.  But she made it through and had a little boy, Heath.  Sorry no baby pictures of him.  The babies all look alike.  They are little bald things wrapped in either a pink or blue blanket.  Boring.

This picture pretty much sums up how they all feel about babies..

Helena’s uncle Lee taught her to talk.  He was exceedingly handy to have around.  He helped considerably with the babies, feeding them, changing them, even emptying the potty.

Heath, after transitioning to toddler.  Love how he’s complaining about a baby crying.  Oy.

Helena has a full head of dark hair and poor Heath is one of them bald toddlers.  Poor thing.  Spare heir and no hair :)

Helena is her grandmother’s girl, taking after those dark genetics..

Heath aged up into one of those scary looking kids.  How’s this for a happy face?

It was not long thereafter when we had our first death in the family (and first overall for me in TS3).  The grim reaper came for our founder and matriarch:  Laura.

She plead with him to no avail.  Since she died from old age, her ghost is white.

The family was devastated….

Not long after the family finished mourning Laura (and sims do mourn), the reaper came for Trig.

We got lucky with Trig.  Laura had been a level 10 gardener (forgot to note that, oh well) and grew the Death Flower.  When she died, all her inventory transfered to Trig.  When the reaper came for him, Trig could give death the flower.  The Reaper was so happy, he let Trig live.  He’s so helpful, he has a regular serving of life fruit to make sure he stays around.

Since Laura’s urn was in the house, they’d get a periodic ghostly visitor.  Shortly after Trig’s lucky break, he got an opportunity to bring someone back.  He took Laura’s urn to the science center to resurrect her.  It wasn’t completely successful, but we now had a full time ghost in the house.  Trig was happy.

Let’s skip ahead a little, the kids became teens.  Target is on the science track with a lifetime goal of  getting to level 9 – robot creature creator.  Hera had the lifetime wish of making level 10 of both the Art and Writing skills.  She made it (woot!) – we’ll need a separate post with some of her artwork.  She brought in quite a few simoleons between her painting and books.   So now Helena becomes a young adult and after getting her job in Science (goal is the same as her father’s) goes about the responsibilities of insuring the next generation.  She immediately went out on the town to meet Mr. Right, or at least the baby daddy.

She met Dorian Currie near the bistro and immediately struck up a friendship.  Dorian had commitment issues, and after meeting a coworker, wishes involving him appeared.  They met in a part after work:

He had his own problems, including a distinct lack of humor.  He found her boring.

Since she wasn’t having much luck at home, I sent her on a World Adventure to Paris where she did strike up a relationship with a man, who sadly turned out to be married.  Oh well.

When she got home from the trip, she redoubled her efforts on making a baby.  Much courting of Dorian followed:

He liked her.   Very much, but his commitment issues were getting in the way.  One night she invited him over.  Much flirting, kissing and hugging ensued.  She asked him to stay the night and finally got what she wanted.

(if the lullaby chimes aren’t enough…it was followed the next day by this..)

The house was going to get a bit crowded now.  Heath aged up to young adult…

He then got a job in law enforcement and moved on out. Normally the spare heir doesn’t move out until the next generation offspring is born just to protect against something awful happening to the pregnant heir.  I hope I don’t regret this.  It was also time for Laura to return to the netherworld.  She spent far too much time playing in the sprinkler and scaring the other residents.  She moved along.

Hera continues to paint after work.  Once she made her lifetime wish, she got a job in the business career.  Left alone, she will paint over just about anything.  This is her current work in progress.

Finally, pregnant and showing, Helena was able to get Dorian over his commitment issues and proposed.

There were married in a private ceremony immediately thereafter.

Shortly after turning into teens, one of the kids brought a friend home from school.  This is Pearl.  There’s a glitch in the software somewhere that has resulted in Pearl lacking most of her body.  She appears like this:

Yes, she’s just a floating face.

Laura and Lee both had the wish to go fishing so off they went again.

Once again, I missed a birthday.  Laura got home from fishing and started to celebrate her birthday.

She’s now an elder.  Sorry Trigger, no more babies from her.  He’s got a lifetime wish of raising 5 kids.

Sadly, she now hangs out in a housecoat most of the day now instead of the spiffy business suit used to wear.

Continuing along the birthday parade, Hera is now a young adult!

As is her brother, Lee:

He looks just like his old man now.  They must have gone shopping together for clothes.  Witness:

I think the skinny one on the left is Lee.  I can’t wait for Trigger to age up into an elder so I can tell these two apart.  Speaking of which…

So now that Hera is  a young adult, it is time to get the third generation under way.  I sent her out and about to find a man.  She met Target and they hit it off very well:

In short order, they were engaged…

..and married in a private ceremony shortly thereafter.

Then they got busy..

Success!

Bring on the next gen :)

Both Laura and Lee have a thing for fishing.  I sent them off to the hatchery to spend some quality time together.  After Lee got over his embarrassment, he managed to catch some fish and gain some skill.

Anyway, before I realized it, the kids were having birthdays.  First Hera (I could swear she was the younger kid, but I did age her from toddler to child first) hit teen and then her brother, Lee. Because I totally forgot their birthday, there was no party, not even cake.  Ooops.

With Trigger getting a promotion and earning royalties from his writing, I was able to make some improvements to the house.  The kitchen and bathroom were extended to allow for a hallway entrance instead of everyone having to wander through the bathroom and the master bedroom.  Now it is a more proper house.

To be continued…

It’s a girl!  Our matriarchal heir is born.  Meet Hera (yes I suspected correctly, a pink blanket for swaddling the girl) and her toddler brother.

Laura has a thing for upgrading the various things around the house.  Here she is “upgrading” the toilet to self-cleaning.  Timely too.  Her husband is a total slob.  Why it involves smacking things with tools is beyond me, but apparently it works.  She’s upgraded the toilet, shower, stove and kitchen sink to all be self-cleaning.

Hera quickly (yes, I bought her a birthday cake a couple of sim days early as I just don’t dig baby sims) became a toddler and discovered the music toy.

In the course of events, both toddlers became kids after mastering the toddler skills.  Having Laura retired and home with the toddlers meant they could learn to use the potty, walk and talk in short order.  I hastened the birthday to child again with the cake.  I discovered a shortcoming to that in that the skills they acquire with the toddler toys (logic on the shape sorter and music on the xylophone, etc) didn’t appear in their skill set as children.  They’d both mastered something too.  Oh well.

Trigger has gotten a number of promotions.  Pair that with his regular income, money made selling produce raised in the front yard and rewards from opportunities, I was able to add more rooms to the house.  First a bedroom for Laura and Trigger.

Next came a front entry area with an easel, the computer, tv area, bookshelf and other assorted “living room” stuff.

Finally, I enclosed the kitchen.

Yup, moving up in the world!

Here’s Trigger talking to the tummy.  He’s a family kind of guy with a lifetime aspiration of raising 5 children.  Ugh.  I usually cap them at two per generation, but we’ll see.  He’s also got an unlucky trait where he winds up breaking just about everything he touches.  Fortunately he’s got some repair skills so he can fix what he breaks.  Reminds me, the computer is broken.  Again.

Here’s Laura on her way into the hospital to push out the little spawn.  The Sims 3 gives you the option of having the babies at home old style or heading to the hospital.  They disappear into the rabbit hole and emerge a while later holding a baby.

Speaking of the baby, its a BOY!  Another Sims 3 change is the baby laying around in nothing but a diaper.  They are sort of swaddled in blankets.  I’m guessing the blankets are color coded but I’ve had nothing but boys so I can’t say first hand.  Anyway, this is baby Lee.

Amazingly enough, this is Lee’s first time laying around on the floor.  His parents (unlike the Sims 2 parents I’ve played) put him in his crib.  This is his first birthday.  He’s now a toddler.  And yes, Laura is preggers again.

We’re hoping for a girl this time….

I opted to start with a female and go with a matriarchy.  Go figure.  I started with a pre-designed sim that I downloaded form the exchange here.  And yes, I’m still sad BSG is gone.  I edited her to make her a Young Adult and tweaked a few of her personality traits.  She’s an outdoor lover, as well as a klepto, which are both very handy given the beginning rules of the game.  Since we have so little in the way of simoleans to start, I opted to do the minimum accomodation wise.

This is the entirety of her “home”.  An empty lot with a bed, toilet (which some bastard robber stole on the first night) a wall and a roof.   She showers at the gym.  I sent her out to pick some fruit and maybe do a little swiping.

I set her about planting some of what she harvested to gain gardening skills.  As you can see the toilet is gone.  Damnit.  I had to send her to the gym to pee until she had enough simoleans to buy a new toilet.

She got a job in politics.  Go figure Laura Roslin Droit would want a job there.  Moving up the career ladder pretty well combined with the light finger trait, she amassed some stuff.

The bed was upgraded after meeting and falling in love with Trigger Broke.

They were wed in the reading room after a very short engagement :)

I love his workboots and shorts look!

Upon returning home, he set about looking for a job, journalism, while she tended her garden.

And finally, I had to add a real room as there is an addition on the way..

She’s very pregnant.