Basically I made some sims in game from scratch before exclusively making them in body shop, and I put them in families and such, but would like to be able to work w/ them individually in body shop and can't seem to figure out if there is a function or work-around to do this some how.

Is there a way to save sims in the game itself, in the same way you can save them in body shop... Where you can save them to a package file or possibly transport them to body shop?

Yes, it is possible to get a Sim that was created in-game in CAS out to Body Shop by using the Sim Surgery tool in SimPE to export the Sim. Try doing a search, as there are instructions out there in the forums on how to do this.