He became bald. Fantastic. At least Ember is the heir so that I can change it if necessary.  Ember was so excited to share the news with Clarissa.

The two of them are just the most awesome ever.  They couldn’t stop thinking about each other.

After Emerald moved out to a nice house somewhere else in Twinbrook,

Ember decided to ask Clarissa to marry him.

But she said no

Ember and I were VERY upset about this, and so we decided something needed to change.  That something was his hair.  The following are the choices we went through.

The windblown Fast Lane SP hair.

The toque (very wintery and Canadian of you Ember.. but you look too young)

And some Great Uncle Cobalt hair.

See they look soo alike!

Anyways, with Ember sporting his new ‘do, we tried again.

YayyY! And she said yes! Without further ado, Ember moved her into the house via a quick private wedding in Gray’s bedroom.

Clarissa, Ember, welcome to Gen 4.

I will miss her.

Remember that you want to pick someone as smart as her.

And someone who is good at picking husbands, and able to get along with them.

So clearly not Emerald, who hates everyone and would not have a husband and just sleep with men and raise babies on her own.  Emerald is an easily-impressed, insane technophobe who hates the outdoors.

Ember may be a good second choice though.. hmm? hmm?

He makes faces just like Gilbert! He is a flirty, over-emotional, insane, genius…

…and he was our first autonomous relationship sim (surprising, what with that face)

Clarissa would move into the house with Ember and they would marry and we would have our first male torch-holder and a chance at actually getting LTW points because he wouldn’t be pregnant all the time!

Although judging from this picture her father would want to come too.

And she’s friends with Embers mom! What more could you want in a potential Stephansdom spouse? Huh?

Sidenote, today was the first time in a play session that all 8 Stephansdom’s were in the same room at the same time.

Your other choices include the triplets. Fern, the absent-minded insane genius who is also a couch-potato.

French Rose, the insane, absent-minded, technophobic athlete who is at level 5 in athletics.

And Fuschia, an insane, inappropriate slob.. who would probably marry this guy!

Finally, baby Gray, an over-emotional, perceptive and insane sim.

Choose wisely friends.

Also.. you will get to see who this is at the start of Gen4. He is related to the family. Guesses anyone?

Fern gets along ok with everyone.  She isn’t friends with either of her parents or siblings, but she isn’t enemies with anyone either.  She does alright in school too. She’s not an honour roll student like Ember or French Rose, but she isn’t getting a C like Emerald either.

Little Gray is just that, little.  His hair will be red though I can see by his eyebrows.  He is lovable and cuddly looking. Thats pretty much all you can say about him.  He stays home with Loony all the time.

Loony goes a little loopy in the house all alone.

Ember gets into arguments with Clarissa’s parents all the time.  Which is fine, because his relationship with her goes up and then she ends up coming over.  Apparently Clarissa doesn’t like her parents very much. She’s like a 9th member of the family.

Emerald likes to skip school a lot. Here she is after sleeping over at a friends house and not leaving (PS this is a room Azure did like 8 times, and this is my favourite house she ever decorated .

French Rose is the most flexible of all the teens. She will do her homework alone or with others, and doesn’t seem to over react to anything or anybody.  She is also the most skilled, she has 4 athletic skill points.

Loony will sometimes autonomously help his triplets with their homework.

Which is really quite adorable.

In other news, Damson has reached level 5 of her career — which means only 5 more to go till a LTW is fulfilled! Maybe I’ll actually get 40 of those points before Gen 10.

Cake is the only food in the house what with all the birthdays.. not that Fuschia minds.

And Emerald still hates everyone, except Gray. Him she will at least tickle.

And Damson asked for a promotion from this chick (the house Emerald was at.. aw Azure!) which didn’t go over well — so we buttered her up for next time.

And Gray had a birthday –> he added over-emotional to insane and perceptive (a little detective in the making!) –> and I forgot to take a birthday picture to show you.

We almost had another autonomous relationship but Fuschia blew it… just not as smooth as Ember I would imagine.

But if she gets heir she will totally marry that guy.. whats his name.  The next post will have all the remaining teen years of Ember and Emerald and a *drum roll please* HEIR POLL!

Without further ado,

Damson went to retrieve the ashes of her mother and aunt from the mausoleum.  She placed them in the family graveyard, with a reminder to herself to decorate it next time she passed through.

Lara’s is the one that is taller than the others.  Damson spent some time at the graveyard and then raced over to see how Casie and Daffodil were holding up.

Casie was devastated, but she had over her boyfriend to comfort her as well.  Damson felt okay leaving the young girl to her conversation and went home to help out her own children.

Loony had been going stir crazy so he took a trip to the pool as soon as Damson got home.

Damson watched her children closely to see if any of them were experiencing a lot of distress. Ember had put on a funny outfit, but Emerald seemed content looking after baby Gray.

Damson had almost forgotten it was the triplets birthdays.  She barely made it out in time with the cake.  Damson invited some family over, thinking maybe they could all use a little love and happiness in their lives — it is what Amethyst and Azure would have wanted.

Bondi, Gilbert, Daffodil and Clarissa turned up at the party.  And one by one, Damson’s little kids grew up into teenagers. And she couldn’t believe her eyes at how amazing they did it.

Everyone caught their breath when French Rose grew up — she looked exactly like Lara, and was now an insane, absent-minded, technophobe who was athletic.

Fuschia was beautiful as well.  She added slob to inappropriate, insane and genius.  But everyone agreed that Fern was the most beautiful of them all.

Although insane, absent-minded and a couch potato, Fern was also a genius.

Damson could not have been happier or prouder of her children.  Only little perceptive, insane Gray was left to grow up and she knew that her mother would have loved to witness this as well.  Times they were a changin’.

Emerald is a little bit of an odd bird. On top of the arguments with the fridge she spontaneously gets into fights with everybody and everything — and she’s not even mean-spirited!

She fights most often with her father.  I think this hurts Loony – because although he is mean-spirited, he has never (and I mean literally never) been mean to his children or to Damson.  Emerald seems to be following in Daffodil’s footsteps – fighting with her parents at every opportunity.

Damson threw herself back into work. Now that her eldest were teens, she knew she didn’t have to spend as much time caring for them. She still dedicated time on a daily basis to chatting with them and ensuring that they were doing well, but as soon as she got word from an associate of hers at the hospital that her mother was sick — she painted furiously and waited for Azure to tell her about her illness in person.

Ember could sense his mother’s preoccupations and took it upon himself to be the primary caregiver of baby Gray. It’s not like he could depend on Emerald to do it – she was busy either making their own parents mad or visiting a friends house and making her friend’s parents mad instead.

And the children? Well, Fern and Fuschia spent time staring at photos, and French Rose struggled through her homework with help from Dad. And occasionally he plays tag with them too. I love Loony – such a good father.

When a day had passed and Damson still hadn’t heard anything from her mother, she took it upon herself to take an unpaid leave of absence and go visit her parents. Her mother wasn’t there when she arrived, but Damson quickly discerned that her father knew nothing of Azure’s illness.  While she waited for her mother, she spent some quality time cooking with Gilbert.

When her mother got home, Damson took her aside and told her what she knew, that she loved her, and that it wasn’t fair for Azure to let Gilbert wonder what was going on.

Azure took her beautiful daughter’s advice, and as Damson watched her parents talk she could see the love blossom between them more than ever. She hoped that each one of her children would find love the same way.

That afternoon, an unwelcome, although expected, visitor arrived and Azure, the second generation heir, passed on.

Gilbert was incredibly distraught, and Damson comforted him as best she could (doctors don’t have a cure for a broken heart) before going home to be comforted by the presence of her own family.

When Damson got home, rather distraught, to her surprise (and mine) she found Ember on the lawn flirting with a schoolmate.  She slipped passed him unnoticed, deciding to save the bad news for later and let him go about his teenage business.  Unawares, a tiny smile slipped onto her lips as she moved silently passed her eldest.

Clarissa is her name, I can’t remember her last name at the moment, but she’s quite a character.  I watched them autonomously flirt for lots of sims hours, and the following is picspam of the first autonomous relationship of the ISBI!

Flirty McFlirtson

(Simlias thought process) Alright Ember, you can do it… slow now, don’t scare her away!

Moving in for the hug

A hug, brilliant! Much better than when my fiancee was flirting with me and decided getting into a balloon fight was the best option… good move staying away from the.. wait a second, what are you doing *smacks forehead*

Rejection

Ember! You moved too fast, now she’s going to go home and you’re never going to have her over again and our chance at a relationship is gone! Wait a second, why is she staying? She may be just as crazy as you are.

Oh no, don’t try again. Didn’t you learn the first time?

What!? YES! We did it, we did it *dances in her computer chair* Lalalalala we did it!

And then Ember, possibly my favourite sim of all time (after Lara, of course) went beyond all my expectations and asked her to be his girlfriend!

And she not only said yes, but then she stayed in the house allll weekend! Meet the newest member (okay not yet but she practically lives there) of the Stephansdom’s everyone. Clarissa whats-her-name!
She’s kind of pretty when her mouth isn’t open. Anyways, when they were done with their flirting, Ember even went to do his homework despite the fact his new girlfriend was over. What a good teenager.

No one was surprised that Clarissa got along with the family…

except with Emerald of course — but who gets along with Emerald?

Ember even took it upon himself to have a talk with his mother.. he knew she was upset, and didn’t want her to think that his relationship with Clarissa would take him away from his family and the responsibilities that came with that. It was good timing for this conversation…

… because she found out that her Aunt Amethyst had passed away that day as well.

Like his father, Ember’s favourite food is autumn salad, except when its stinky.

Ember is an insane, over-emotional genius. He was insane and a genius when he was born and became overly emotional as a child. Maybe it was being the oldest of six (along with Emerald) or maybe because his genius combined with his insanity is too much for him to handle.

Ember and Fern are the only two who autonomously do their homework. Fern was born an insane genius as well, and added absent-minded to her traits as a child (the game usually chooses toddlers traits cause I rarely bother with toddler skilling.

I think it may be their genius traits that inspire them to learn at school. I personally have a soft spot for Ember. He was the only boy for so long, until Gray, in this generation, and sharing a room with his sister had to be crappy, but he just goes on through, recycling and everything.

Loony loves to carry around little Gray, and watches tv with him a lot.  Gray is an insane, perceptive sim, the first perceptive sim I’ve had – which would be interesting if I wanted him to be heir (which I don’t cause the chances Damson would die on the way are very very high and he would have to be a YA before she died!).

Clearly the birthday cake in the background of that picture gives you an indication of what is about to happen in the Stephansdom house! Three birthdays!

Which means the extended family is on its way.  First to come was old Cobalt, who has a young fiancee who has triplet toddlers from her first marriage (Cobalt you old fox you). I’m not sure how he keeps up with it all — as they live with him.

Next was crazy great Uncle Bondi, who still works as a playground monitor and is still loveless. Oh well. He seems happy.

Casie arrived with Gilbert, and Amethyst came after (although I’m not sure I captured her in a picture at this party).

Casie has taken over as the pointer in the family. And clearly, Daffodil (who did not show up to her sister’s dismay, as they were also supposed to celebrate their adult birthdays together) has had quite the influence on her – at least clothes wise.

The triplets watched excitedly as their older siblings aged into teens. Fuschia (an insane, inappropriate, slob), Fern, and French Rose (an insane, absent-minded, technophobe) couldn’t wait to grow up themselves. They had heard from their mother that one of her children would take over the family and couldn’t wait to see if it was them.

Grandma Azure was also there.

Emerald grew up first, followed closely by Ember.

Ember reminds me a lot of Gilbert in the facial feature area.

The third birthday then occurred. Although saddened by the fact that her sister decided not to show up at her party, Damson was excited at the idea of turning into an adult.   She absolutely loved being surrounded by her family.

Ah, there’s Amethyst.. in her purple party pants.

I don’t think she expected to get tingly

I think they grew up quite well, Emerald and Ember

Emerald added easily-impressed to insane, technophobe who hates the outdoors.

And Ember got flirty (maybe a sim of mine will autonomously be in a relationship? Maybe? Please?)

After everybody left, Ember cleaned up the house (that was a big job.. as you can see)

And took care of Gray (his little face turned green so I clicked on him to see who was taking care of him, hence the plumbob, its his, not Embers) while his siblings slept peacefully.

Little did everyone know that would be the last time the whole family would be together.

But Damson, despite her trait as a heavy sleeper, was sleeping restlessly, trying to decide between a wish to have ten children and her lifetime wish of becoming a surgeon.

Damson had to put the thoughts out of her mind for Loony’s birthday the next day.

Daffodil even showed up for the party!

Casie danced with her Granddad Gilbert.

Who was making one of his famous faces.

Loony stood in the middle of his extended family as they were dancing around him, and he realized that despite the insanity of it all he was actually very proud to be a part of the Stephansdom clan.

Later that night Damson went into a very difficult labour and decided to head to the hospital with Loony in tow.

Damson left the hospital running (note: I have noticed that all the Stephansdom’s run everywhere, except the ones who are married in… what is this? They can also wear the police hat.. is this a hidden trait?)

And later Loony got the chance to hold baby Gray.

Damson hadn’t made her decision yet, but later in the night, when nobody else was awake, she slowly approached her sixth baby’s crib.

Baby Gray was crying, and Damson picked him up in her soothing, motherly way — something that came so naturally to her.

Damson cuddled Gray close to her chest, feeling his tiny heart beat, as she thought carefully over her decision.

Damson loved having her children

She had no concerns about being able to handle four more.

But she also knew what a responsibility carrying on her families legacy was.  And if she was going to choose the right person, she wanted to make sure she had time to get to know all her children.

And if she had ten, by the time Ember and Emerald were ready to go off into the world, the youngest would only be a baby, the same size as Gray was now.

As the sun began to rise, Damson snuggled baby Gray one more time close to her chest.

Before leaving for work, the first day of many she would spend there, uninterrupted by maternity leave.

Emerald spoke frequently to her father of her desires to become a celebrity of some kind.  Her father, in his traditional fatherly ways, hoped it was a celebrity five star chef, and not the kind of celebrity Linsay Simlan had turned into.

Ember was fascinated with the ghost of his great-grandmother… the fact that she was a ghost, that is. When she spoke he was usually bored, but decided that maybe he wanted to study things that were logical?

Damson and Loony continued to keep the love alive in the bedroom.  They had decided maybe it was better to let Lara stay – but Lara had different plans. As Damson and Loony got in some quality time – Lara returned to the netherlands all on her own (Note: seriously, all on her own).

Which meant there was room in the house for one more…

Little Ember fainted at the shock of his great-grandma’s urn in the living room (-5 ah!)

The next morning Damson decided to start a family graveyard across the street from the legacy home.  She laid Buddy and Lara down to rest and decided that she would hire someone later to do some landscaping — she would have to ask her mother for some ideas.

She knew Daffodil would be happy with the family graveyard and went to see her sister, who was actually on her way to work

Damson decided instead to invite her cousin Casie over to meet the children.

Unfortunately Casie and Ember took an instant dislike to one another.

Ember didn’t like the fact that Casie was insinuating he didn’t know anything, and he took offense by sitting on the couch and reading, and instead of helping her cousin with the babies, Casie decided to engage in one of the Stephansdom’s favourite pasttimes, dancing!

Damson shook her head and thought to herself, Casie is just like Aunt Amethyst.

It was no secret that Casie thought her cousin’s husband was a hottie, so she danced up a storm with Loony, who therefore was also not free to take care of the babies.

In addition to trying to take care of her growing family, building a career and watching out for her elderly Aunt, Mother and Father, Damson was busting her butt off to get to level 7 painting so she could do Azure’s portrait… she knew it was part of her duties and wish she had had an inclination for it as a child.

small paintings - DeCasim style!

Loony made himself an autumn salad, and was surprised at how much he liked it – what a change in pace from cake!

The next morning Damson spun into some old familiar clothes, and thought to herself Weird clothing choice.. the last time I wore this I was….. pregnant. And reality hit. Not very hard of course, because there was nothing Damson loved more in the world than her family.

It was at this point that Damson grew the wish to have ten children from somewhere deep inside her.  She thought about her wish to be a doctor, and then carefully again about her wish to bear children. She was at a crossroads.

Loony was not unhappy that she was having another child, as he gave her a thumbs up.

Ember was a quiet child, so Damson couldn’t really figure out what he thought. He spent most of his time reading, either on his bed or in the living room, and playing the occasional game of chess.

While waiting for baby number six to arrive, Damson spent some quality time with her toddlers.

Collected the money from the bistro, grocery and book stores that the family had a share in and owned (they own the bistro).

And after a quick trip to the spa to ease her aching back, Damson went to visit her parents

Who were equally as ecstatic as Loony had been.  In addition, Damson had a talk with her dad about her impending decision – lifetime wish or babies?

Gilbert had an answer – that it had to be Damson’s choice. That it was a choice he could never make for her.

When she got home, she found that her babies had grown into children while she was away. Little Fern, Fuschia and French Rose weren’t so little anymore.

Fern

French Rose

Fuschia

As Damson studied her children who were walking out in the garden together, she stroked her belly, which was holding another child that would bring her so much joy.

And the question remained… babies or work? (Maybe you could help Damson out? What do you think….?)

Lara Stephansdom HAD to detonate something.

She chose the picnic table because it was outdoors, and she did it while Damson and Loony were asleep, just in case.

Giddy with excitement and anticipation, she waited, and then covered her ears.

In preparation for the giant explosion that wielded six scrap pieces.

The urge satisfied, Lara floated her way over the debris (that she thought nobody would notice?) into the house to use the toilet.

However, someone inside had heard the bang, and was not impressed. Loony had told Damson if her Grandma ever blew up anything they owned that she would have to go. He placed a call to an old University buddy who now worked at the Science lab to see if anything could be done.

Damson accepted that she would be forced to choose between Loony and Lara… and she had to do what was best for her children. Although she loved her grandmother, she had to admit that Lara was a bit of, well, a destructive personality.  The problem was they could not initiate the process just yet.

However in the meantime Damson had bigger things on her mind.  The triplets were going to be toddlers. She scrubbed down the house in preparation for the party.

Cobalt was the first to arrive. Her mother’s youngest sibling, he was still an adult, and also on to his third elderly girlfriend (seriously, Cobalt loves the elders).

Bondi was old however, and although he had recently acquired a girlfriend, she was old to so no grandchildren there. Behind him was teenage Casie in the doorway.

Before the triplets aged up, Damson made sure she spent some quality time with the twins.

She held Ember while talking to her father, and then tucked in Emerald before going to host the party.

Little French Rose grew up first (I previously called her Forest rose, which is not her name). She looked like a little version of her great-grandma Lara.

Next to age up was Fuschia. She has similar hair to her sister Emerald, but with blonde streaks.

And finally, and most definitely the one who stole my heart the most with her looks, baby Fern aged up into a toddler.

The following is an excerpt of the next few days in the Stephansdom household. Damson was back at work, and therefore this is what the rest of them were up to during that time (be forewarned.. the following includes lots of toddler picspam)

There was lots of rocking

Ember

Fern

French Rose

Emerald

Very little sleeping

Adorable little Fern!

Some block playing

Fuschia

Some doll head eating

A lot of being carried around by Great-Grandma Lara who is refusing to let anyone else hold you, feed you, or put you to sleep.

And a frequently grumpy Daddy.

Probably because he wasted most of his time chasing Lara instead of the babies.

Damson spent time in her study when she got home, for some peace and quiet before tackling the masses.

And then finally, it was time for the twins birthdays.  Instead of having another massive party, they kept it in the family.

Damson looked on proudly as her first borns aged into children.  Lara pointed inappropriately, which may have been the last straw for Loony.

Ember lost the Bondi hair (thank goodness)

And I wasn’t quite sure what to think about Emerald… poor girl got the Stephansdom nose.

The triplets played happily together throughout the whole proceedings. And despite everything, what with the five babies and the crazy ghost of a Grandma who blows things up and who they cant get rid of, they keep their love going strong.

But Damson followed through on their plan to get rid of Lara later that night…

And everything was set in motion.

I have just been promoted (yay!) so I am spending a bajillion years per week at my job now (boo!) which means the Stephansdoms are on a back burner.

However, expect the next update Monday – and then they will continue regularly from there. The promotion was unexpected in a crisis time so I have had to put in lots of overtime recently!

Simslia