MORE ELDER VALDEZ PICS

Here's some more pics of Tony!

ELDER "T" IS COMING HOME!

So today my mom got the "letter" of my little bothers release date from his mission! He will be coming home approximately August 5th! (I'm changing this because he sent an email and isn't quite sure when the exact date will be. We are so excited! He has baptized so many people and has had a great mission! He is currently serving in the New York, New York South Spanish speaking mission.

• Here are some of the reasons why my little brother is so AWESOME:

• He has a strong testimony of the church






• He has been a great example to me and I look up to him






• He has a huge heart and has been so compassionate towards his nephew with Autism (He even asked if he could change his mission to the signing mission so he would know sign language when he got home).






• He has a huge smile and can make friends with anybody he comes into contact with






• He has a great sense of humor and we can joke about anything






• He got the Bill Gates Scholarship (10 years of free college anywhere USA, money to not work and free dorm living expenses so he can focus on studying :-) Amazing!






• He got accepted to UC Santa Barbara on his mission!






• He is a very frugal person, which is wish I could be! He boycotted Wendy's when their junior bacon cheeseburgers went up in price and he wouldn't eat there until the price went back down.

There are so many things I love about Tony, but the thing that recently touched my heart is that he is going to come back from his mission and go back to New York in a couple a weeks to be with a lady that he baptized when she gets her endowments! I am thankful that we have the church and that Tony and myself were baptized on the same day! Thanks Gabe for bringing my mom and all of us back into the church when we lived in Indiana and being a positive influence in our lives!

CASSIUS' SWIMMING LESSONS

So I signed Cassius up for swimming lessons recently and was so worried that Cassius wouldn't stay focused enough to do it. He has had a blast doing it and is getting great social interaction! His instructor there has done her best to keep him apart of the group and to understand everything. I went back and forth on whether or not I should tell she and her aides that he has "Autism" because I felt that I didn't need to put a label on him everywhere he goes, but I felt so bad when they would ask him questions and he would reply, "Bob Bob" for Spongebob. So I told them...

They have been awesome with him and even do sign language with him! So, if any of you want to know where to take your child with Autism for swimming lessons, contact me. Here's some pics of his first lesson and leaving the house to go!

GIGA BALL

So if y'all haven't seen one of these balls before, they are great!!

It takes 10 minutes to blow up with a pump and it's huge! I saw this Giga Ball at the Autism Carnival last year and got one immediately afterwards for $60 bucks! (At Target, I love that place:-) Totally worth it! It has 2 holes on either side of it to get in and out of it, it can hold up to 150 lbs and kids love it. They just roll across the yard or any flat surface. I took it to a moms group this winter and we had to drag kids out of it...

Here's some pictures of Cassius, Atticus and Uncle Nick rolling around in the yard. I just love this weather!