This is a save I've been playing with, on and off, for almost a year now, so quite a lot has been going on in fact. Long story short, Seneca Fox (youngest son of the premade Fox family) married Lucia Diamond (daughter of Barrington Diamond and Juanita Blanco). They had 4 kids, who all had kids of their own, and now those kids are also having kids. As you can probably imagine, the family tree has grown quite large at this point. So far I've mostly been focusing on the "main" Fox family (starting with Seneca and Lucia, followed by their heir Joanna, and now Miriam, Israel and their children), only occasionally interfering with the other households, but lately I've been thinking of adopting a more rotational style.

As for what's happened recently - Joanna's husband, Ameen, passed away, and she travelled to Al Simhara to bury him in his homeland:

While there, I also snapped a few screenshots of a museum I created (I won't say built, because it's actually a repurposed vacation home) to house the artefacts collected by Joanna during her adventures:

Meanwhile, back at Appaloosa Plains, I'd been having trouble getting a foal with the appearance I wanted. Breeding and racing horses had been one of the main money-makers for the Fox family, and all their racehorses since the original Lady Fox had been white. Now though, the latest in the line, Arashi, hadn't been able to sire a foal with suitable colour in 4 attempts, and the household size wouldn't allow keeping the horses on the main lot and keep trying for foal. So I actually had to move Armin out to another lot with all the horses. Now, though, I had finally been met with success - meet Eclipse Fox: (and yes, I do realise I could just edit the horse's appearance, but I find that kinda cheap)

Seen here with Eric and Constance (whose outfit is hideous because she just aged up from toddler and I haven't changed it yet).

Also a closer look at Eric, since he's likely to be the heir to the ranch:

His traits are Artistic, Brave, Hot-headed and Light Sleeper. Takes mostly after his father in appearance, though he has his mother's eyes. It should be noted that the Foxes homeschool their children (using Awesomemod's no automatic enrollment feature), so at least 2 of their traits are always going to be randomised - usually I random the others as well, unless I have some specific purpose in mind for them.

Meanwhile, in the other households:

Kareem just completed his lifetime wish of adopting an unicorn.
Him and Lyra (who's an alchemist) are the only people involved with anything supernatural in this save at the moment. Since their current home was not really suited for a horse, they moved to a cottage on the edge of town, with a bit more space around the house. Unfortunately, Bolt (that's the name of the unicorn) is an elder and 72 days old, so he's unlikely to be sticking around much longer.

They also own four cats, here's two of them enjoying the fancy cat condo that came with the new house:
This isn't really relevant to anything, but I'll take any excuse to share pictures of cats.

Armin was no longer needed to supervise breeding for the Fox horses, so he could finally move in with the Bedlingtons and marry Bailey (who had already turned into an elder in the meantime).

He brought two of the horses with him and built a stable for them on the lot next to the Bedlington mansion.

Afterwards, when I'd switched to playing another household, Armin decided to throw a costume party. Just about everyone showed up.
Here's Priscilla chatting to Joanna, with Shawn in the back. The person in the foreground is Martin Shepherd, Kareem's father.
Here's Drew holding Kylie while talking to his cousin Lyra, while Tate Rea (one of the very few people in town who are not related to the Foxes by blood or marriage) looks on.

The next day, Drew got hit by a meteor. He survived the blast, but two townies died - nobody important, fortunately. I don't think any of my played Sims had even met them.

I love Appaloosa Plains! It's especially great for family-oriented saves. That meteor blast is insane though, I wonder how frequently they happen? Also, there can never be too many cat photos > : )

Hmm, this group seems pretty dead. I suppose me taking a break from the game for nearly a year did not help in that regard. Oh well, now's as good a time as any to breathe some life into it.

Anyhow, starting from where I left off - Joanna Fox passed away at the age of 95, on the very same day her granddaughter Serena turned into a young adult.

So far I hadn't had any Sims from this save go to uni, but with Serena being a genius bookworm, I figured she would appreciate some higher education. So, off she went, accompanied by three other YAs from the neighbourhood. Here's the group settling in on their first day at uni:
The fat ginger is Reed Bedlington, Serena's cousin. A PE major with a LTW of becoming an astronaut.
Dark-haired guy is Antone Fox, the son of Serena and Reed's great-uncle Shawn. Apparently the relation is distant enough to allow for romantic relationships, as Serena and Antone are actually attracted to one another. He's majoring in Communications and dreams of becoming Leader of the Free World.
And the blond is Tate Rea, a random townie and friend of Serena's. Technology major, with Renaissance Sim LTW.

Life pro tip: don't forget to put out the fireplace when you go to the meet and greet.

Aside from the fire incident, the group's first two semesters at uni went smoothly. Classes were skipped, keggers were held,
romance was had,
and finals were passed with flying colours. Reed got in shape, Antone became quite a ladies' man, and Tate beat up a burglar:

Now the 4 are ready to return and complete their degrees.

The second term went much the same as the first, and 4 degrees were handed out. As the group moved back to their hometown, they also brought their paramours with them.
Antone married Ashley Corono in a lavish ceremony:

Tate married Holly Gabrielsun with slightly less ostentatious proceedings:
They also adopted a dog, pictured here with Tate's mother Sondra:

Reed moved in with Shannon Arkers. I don't have any pictures of them acting lovey-dovey aside from the one included in the previous post, but I do have this picture of Reed in a hotdog costume:
Also, I changed Reed's lifetime wish to Perfect Body, Perfect Mind, as I didn't think his personality was really suited for the military.

Serena was the only one of the four who hadn't found love at university, but that did not seem to bother her as she was more than happy to dedicate her life to science.
Here she is taking a DNA sample from her distant cousin Adele, with Adele's mother in the background dressed as a robot (don't ask).

While Serena was there, Adele's brother Gerard also came for a visit:
Gerard's an aspiring athlete, but for some reason his job performance seems to keep dropping when I'm not playing him, even though he has maxed out athletic skill. He's married to Sammi Parrott (seen here pestering her niece Kylie while she's trying to do her homework)
and they have a son, Jerome:
They live with Sammi's parents Edward and Juliette, who are both pretty spry for their age:
And of course, they have parrots:

2 good friends from university, Ashley deSorrento and Samantha Grey, looking for a change of pace after completing their degrees, have moved to Appaloosa Plains:
Did I mention how Antone was quite a ladies' man? Well, both of them were romantically involved with him. What they don't know, is the other's relationship to him, nor that he's married, nor that he lives in the same town. This has the potential to get interesting, though I won't be delving much into this love quadrangle as of yet in this post.

Eric Fox ran into Samantha Grey one day at the Art Gallery and they hit it off straight away. When he let her know Antone was married, she understandably wasn't too happy about it.
She got over it remarkably quickly, though.
Building an igloo is a good way to take your mind off things, isn't it?
Yep, it definitely is.
It wasn't long before the relationship took a more official turn:
Not long after the wedding, Eric's father Israel passed away unexpectedly:´
And the same day, Samantha realised she was pregnant.
It's the circle, the circle of life...

On a completely unrelated note, a stray cat showed up at the door one day and expired. Well, first it decided to run away:
It made it all the way to the back porch before Grim caught up.
In the end, nobody can escape death.
Even if death does like cats enough to give them 9 chances.
Constance, being a coward, was so terrified from seeing Grim that she passed out:
I'm sure having lost her father only a few days ago didn't help matters.

Cat-related shenanigans aside, Samantha soon gave birth to a baby girl named Cassidy.
This marks the beginning of the 6th generation for this family, counting the original premade sims. Almost everyone from Joanna's generation has now passed on, including Callie (the crazy robot lady) and Lyra's father Barry. Only her youngest brother Shawn, Antone's father, still lives.

Antone did end up hooking up with Ashley DeSorrento again, and unsurprisingly the next time he saw him, she was pregnant and very angry:
Thanks to his maxed-out charisma, he managed to patch up the situation and keep his affair from becoming public, even after DeSorrento gave birth to twins:
(the baby is on the floor because she only had one crib in the house)
He also got an opportunity to write a book about his life. One can only imagine he'll be leaving out a few details...
The greeting card on the table is a picture of the original inhabitants of the house, Juanita and Barrington Diamond - Antone's great-grandparents.

In other news, I remodeled Drew's house. It was an EA premade from the bin, and quite possibly the dreariest looking building in the neighborhood:
I can't decide what is worse - the dormers straight out of McMansion Hell, the hideous colour scheme, the sad little railing on the second floor, the tall rounded top window that doesn't actually connect to a room, the utter lack of any kind of landscaping... And the inside wasn't any better, either:

After pics:

Unfortunately, ran out of money and energy before I could finish up the garden. And I still don't like the bit above the bay window - the railing clips into the roof, and the balcony is rather tiny and pointless. At least now it actually connects to something though. Still, it's a start.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: Cassidy is growing well, although she seems to have some... unusual... habits
Twin foals!
Another stray animal, a little dog this time, showed up just to die.
Samantha, pregnant with her second child, decided to throw a water balloon at Grim.
I built a family crypt in the graveyard:
Figured we needed one, since there isn't really a lot of space for new graves up top, and I was having trouble finding a spot for Israel's urn. Now the family should be set for a few more generations at least.

Been playing a lot, but haven't really felt motivated to write up a post, so here's a recap of all the shit that's gone down:

Antone's wife found out about his infidelity.
She promptly got back at him by hooking up with his boss
then demanded a divorce and kicked him and his parents out of the house. He was forced to resign from his position due to the scandal, and give up his dreams of a political career for now.
Cassidy grew up into a child. Entirely healthy and normal, aside from being a bit hairier than other kids...She also has a little brother now. And as the house was getting crowded, I moved out Samantha into her own apartment for the time being - a small studio I built specifically for her.
Upon moving in, she immediately threw a party:
I'll just leave this here without comment.
Constance also had her first child, a girl named Lydia:
Serena moved in with Adele:
They'd gotten quite close over the years, both being science-minded Sims. Adele was broke (inventing not being the most lucrative business) but had a big house where she lived alone after her mother's death, Serena was rich but lacking space on her lot for her scientific equipment. Pooling their resources allowed them to both renovate their living area and set up a lab for Serena: