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HITTING THE TRAILS WITH DADDY AND HIS LITTLE CAMPERS

gavinsdaddy

March 2010

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WASSUP

Nov 18, 2007 07:01pm (EST)

Hello all hope your fall is going well. We've had such a busy summer and fall. We did alot of camping fishing and bike riding. Our ambassordship is over and we truly enjoyed it! It was great to share our story and meeting a bunch of great people. The Gavinator is really changing. He is a little chatter box. He has also starting to think he is a big boy always trying to do what his big brother is doing. He is finally completely potty trained no pull ups at night. He loves to ride his bike. He also has a cool little scooter. Now that it is cold we back the van out of the garage and let him ride in there. Quinten is growing into quit a little man. He got all A's and B's on his report card so we were very happy. He told me that he wants to get all A's we were excited to here that. Quinten is a great bowler! We finally found a sport that he likes. I see kid league in his future considering he almost beat me the other night. I will be starting a new job in December. I will be selling fire and ems equpment. Just a little update on whats going on around here. Hope you all have a happy holiday season. Below are some pics of the boys. Gavin on a turtle at the zoo, Quinten Dressed up for retro day at home coming time, Gavin flying a plane at the SAC museum,and the boys standing under a plane.

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WALK AND BABYSITTING

May 07, 2007 06:35pm (EST)

We started our walk weekend by running to Des Moines on Friday and picking up 40 cases of bottled water and a large tank of helium for Saturday. That night when we got home Quinten and I unloaded the water from the van to my truck. He likes to help me do stuff. I got to bed at 10:30 only to crawl out of bed to respond to a car accident around midnight. By the time I got home I managed to only get about an 1 1/2 worth of sleep. When we got to the park on Saturday morning, I got the helium tank set up and took a little hit of it to do some funny talking!!!

Then I went around and got all of the water delivered to all the check points. Then Colton and I helped Shonda and Darcy hang banners on the stage. Soon our team started to arrive and Crystal took over with the sometimes impossible task of rounding them all up and keeping them in one place. They were easy to spot in our blaze orange shirts. We had 90ish kids and adults show up to walk with team Gavin. Crystal got up and gave a little speech to get things started. Soon we were walking and it was so cool to see all of the different teams and all there cool shirts. I don't know the total number of walkers but there were sure alot of people there. I missed Carissa, Crystal, Darcy and Shonda in the bounce house. I would have loved to see that! I didn't walk the whole 4 miles. I helped look after kids from our team at the playground. After we were done walking we all ate Mexican food. All though it is not my favorite it wasn't to bad!

Then we took over 100 pictures of family and friends. It was so great to have so many people get together for one common goal, saving babies. Thank you to all the people who made our walk a huge success! I'm very proud of all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got to babysit for a friend tonight. It was nice to have a baby back in the house for a little while. We all enjoyed it. The baby was born with a heart condition, so not many are lucky enough to watch him. We lucked out with the medical background. He was only here about an hour and then his Dad picked him back up. We can't wait to babysit again.

Babysitting

Darcy, Shonda and Crystal

Family Pic of the Pote's

Pote Family on Stage

Gavin and Logan

Team Gavin Pote 2007

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PROUD!!!!!

May 03, 2007 05:53pm (EST)

Walk is coming on this Saturday. We all are very excited here!!! I am once again going to comment on our small community of about 2500 people who came through for us again. Tonight we are sitting at about $10,400!! Wow !!!

Yesterday we were about $1300 shy of our goal we were honestly note sure that we were gonna make it. We decided that we would make one finally call out and it worked. I wouldnt trade this small community for the world. Our walkers are the best we should have over 100 blaze orange shirts walking!!!!! Family and friends, some people we dont even know heard Gavins story and wanted to help. That means to me that we all are getting the job done of spreading the word about the March of Dimes and our mission. Last but of course not least is my beautiful wife, the heart and soul of our team. I cant exspress how proud of her I am!

She has worked so hard this year. I try to help but i'm not that good at it. She has done a awesome job this year!!! I can tell that she is stressed! But she is hanging in like a champ! I love her so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cant wait to see all of our Des Moines teams!!!!! I just cant wait to walk!! Im proud of all of you who walk and share the same goal that we do saving babies! Peace and love Steve

Gavin After PDA Ligation

Silly Gavin

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STILL HERE

Apr 09, 2007 07:49pm (EST)

Wasssssuuuup Share!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't done a blog in awhile so lets see if I can still do this. This time of the year has become my favorite. ITS TIME FOR WALK!!!!! Crystal is the work horse and I'm the eye candy of our team.

I'm also the team motivator. By the end of the week we should have our shirts. You should be able to see us coming a mile away. Donations are coming in!!!!! We are also starting to build our team. Crystal did our press release and e- mailed to all the news papers. But really I love to just get together with friends and family. People that supported us from day one are still by our side with one common goal!!! SAVING BABIES!!!!!!

We have met some great friends through walk and through Share. We also have been very proud to be the ambassador family for this year. Gavin is a local miracle, people are saying how lucky he is to be here. We know that and I am always quick to remind them that there are families that aren't so lucky. I tell the story of our friends that lost two of there triplets. I tell them stories of long hospital stay, and long term medical conditions. I tell them that Gavin can at three show you where the draw the blood out of his arm. I tell them about crippling medical bills!!!!!!

Then I tell them why we walk so that some day the things I listed above wont be an issue. I also remind them that they could be affected by the same things we all have! I give them facts,the grim statistics. It really opens there eyes!! I will be trying to get back into the swing of things I get on every night and read your blogs. There are so many new people her on share that I would just like to say welcome to all of you!!!!!!! Peace and love. Steve

Pics Gavin and I ,Us at the walk luncheon, team Gavin Pote at walk tough guy Quinten with his new tattoo. Quints picture cracks me up I had to put it on here!!HEHE

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Steve, Crystal and Gavin

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QUICK NOTE

Feb 14, 2007 05:07pm (EST)

Hello all! I've been very busy lately and I haven't had much time to do anything here on share. So, tonight I will catch up on your blogs. I feel like I'm losing touch with all of you

I would also like to wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all are enjoying your day. Crystal and I are going to hang with the boys tonight. Everyone here has been sick except for Gavin. I don't know how, but he has managed to ward off all the nasty stuff. The rest of us are healing up with the help of antibiotics. Crystal has been very busy at here parents floral shop the last couple of days. Me, I'm just fixing broken furnaces and water pipes all day every day. I cant wait for it to warm up!!!! Hope all of your families are doing well. Peace and love. Steve

The pictures are after Gavin ate his Valentine's candy.

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A DAY WITH GAVIN

Jan 19, 2007 12:37pm (EST)

Today im just hanging at home with Gavin. He is feeling alittle under the weather . He is a wheezy has a cough and a temp. Some albuterol and childrens motrin and he is good to go. You know that he's under the weather when wakes up and ask you for a treatment. Weve just been watching some tv and playing with cars and trucks. It has been a fun day just hanging with him and playing. Gavins vocabulary is getting much better. He has only seen a speech therapist twice but his speech is developing pretty quick. He makes sure that he is Mater and as he would say Lightening McCeen [McQueen] while we watch Cars for the bizilionth time. He hasnt quite got the q,s down yet. He calls his brother ninten[ Quinten]. Close enough. Ive been in the bathroom with him today a couple of times to give potty high fives and watch him dump his potty chair and flush it away. He is really getting the hang of potty training. Tonight is the biggest basketball game of the season. Panorama Panthers play our biggest rivals the Guthrie Center Tigers. we are playing them at home. They are only 7 miles from us. Usually there are about 2000 fans packed in the gym and Quinten and i are going to be two of them. It will be loud and the whole building will shake. I love that atmoshere. Nothing better than small town rivalries. Sounds like we have more snow coming in Sunday . Winter is reminding us that this is still Iowa And we will still get our fair share of snow. They are saying about 4 to 6 inches here in our area. Well its one and i need to get cleaned up and out of my p.j.s so i can catch the Jerry Springer Show.

Hope you all have a warm and safe weekend! Peace and love ,Steve

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Gavin Today

Silly Gavin

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YES SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jan 16, 2007 06:40pm (EST)

Yes snow !! The first thing out of Gavins mouth. He wanted to go out and play so bad. All day he stood on the back of the couch and looked out the window. I said that when Quint gets home he can go out and play. We waited for Quinten to get home from spending the night at my brothers house. When Quint hit the front door it was time to go out. The boys got dressed and out we went all bundled up. The boys wanted to go sleading but dad had a better idea. I said do you want me to pull you on the sled behind the mower. You've all seen me blog about it or talk about my dare devil boys. They both got that evil twinkle in there eye and it was on. As we were going down the street through the yard and over the hills I could here them whooping and hollaring! Quinten said dad try to dump us off. I managed to ditch Quint but Gavin held on like a pro bull rider. After about a half hour they got board and decided that they wanted to just play. When we were done we all went in and snuggled under the blanket. Crystal missed all the fun she had to work Sunday. Thank you to all that answered my interactive blog, that was fun! Peace and love. Steve

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MUSIC AND EMOTION

Jan 12, 2007 06:59pm (EST)

The boys and I just got back from Mc Donalds. One night a week just the three of us go out to eat. On the way home we were listening to some music rockin' out like we always do. The boys love the music loud like I do!

When a song came on that made me fill up with emotion. The song was "She's Everything to Me" by country singer Brad Paisley. It describes Crystal to a T. Music is a very important part of my life. I used to be very active in music in high school. I was a baritone/ tenor that missed all state by two stinking points.

I also played trumpet ,trombone, drums, and the bass guitar. I used to D.J. in school that was alot of fun. Sad part is I don't play anything at all anymore. I'm so happy to see that my boys love music. I love all forms of music. From J.T. to Hank Williams Sr. to SlipKnot. I like a variety of music. Here's my question. What moves you? When you here that song on the radio where does it take you? This is kind of an interactive blog. Do you remember your 1st concert. Or your favorite stile of music growing up. If you want to put some of them in your comments. Here are mine. My 1st concert was Quiet Riot at the Iowa State Fair. I loved glam bands or hair bands growing up. Like Poison or Motley Crue. I am really easily moved by songs sometimes I cry when I hear Kenny Chesney "Who You'd Be Today" it makes me think of all of you on here who have angels in heaven. My heart just aches!

Then I love to listen to Creadence Clearwater Revival when were camping, sitting around the campfire watching my boys eating smores and getting all sticky and messy!!!! I love to watch them dance around and swat mosquitos, they love camping so much! Whats sad is I don't remember the 1st song I heard when the boys were born. Of course my favorite song right know is Rodney Atkins "Just Like You" a fun loving song about a dad and his son and growing up. Here's one that will date me, Bust a Move by Young MC. I just wanted to do a blog about something that has an effect on us all. Music stirs emotion,it can bring back good or even bad memories, take you back to another place in time. I love to here songs I listened to growing being referred to as oldies. Quinten is listening To Ozzy right now. How funny! I'm gonna go for now and rock out with the boys some more!

Peace and Love, Steve

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The Boys Rockin'

Quinten & one of his favorites

Quint the Country Star

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LEAVING FOR THE FIRST TIME

Jan 08, 2007 05:49pm (EST)

Two nights in a row !!! It's amazing! Don't anyone have a stroke!! After I read my comments today it gave me an idea for this blog. I can remember the 1st time Crystal and I went out for dinner and a movie leaving Gavin with a sitter at night. We live 45 miles from Des Moines. Thats along way when leaving your preemie at home with a sitter! We always had sitters during the day but I was only 10 min. away if something would happen! Not an hour away. After giving our long list of orders to Crystals mom and dad we took off. Wow we thought this will be great!

No kids!!! 10 min. out of town we called, did we tell to this or that and they would say yes you did. I think they wanted to say he'll be ok relax! They never did and we only called every 1/2 hr to make sure things were ok.

As we ate we tried to talk about other things but it always came back to our boys. We cut the night short and came home early. Leaving Gavin was a very difficult thing to do!!! It has gotten much easier to do with time. It just takes time, lots of time! I know letting him go to school will be hard !! After being there to protect him we will have to leave him in the hands of people other than family all day. Do you think they will let us sit in the corner and watch him all day! Just to make sure he is a ok, and he isn't getting picked on, or doing the picking.

As the little milestones become big mile stones I hope that it will be a little easier to sit back and watch him spread his wings and fly. Not being so nervous that something bad will happen to him or Quinten for that matter. Letting go takes time. Take all the time you need! Later , Steve

pics
Quinten's 1st day of school
Gavin's 1st 4th of July

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BABY-SITTING!!!!

Jan 07, 2007 04:49pm (EST)

High all hope your new year is going great. I've been keeping busy especially with the ambulance here lately. Do you remember having to find your 1st baby sitter. One that would not be intimidated by bells whistles and oxygen tubing. I remember having a funeral for Crystal's Grandpa 2 days after we were home with Gavin. We got a nurse from the hospital to watch him. Lucky us! She said he just slept and she read a book. We were able to use family and friends for awhile to get us to summer. Then we new that we would have to hire some sitters to keep him at home as long as we could before he would have to go to my moms for day care. we were able to keep him home for a little over a year until he was about a year and a 1/2 . We put out the word around town and found two great baby-sitters! This small town rocks! We thought that it would be hard but it was easy. The criteria for watching our little miracle was lengthy and overwhelming but they took it and him head on! 1st thing was the issue of infection and illness. If you are or think you will be sick don't show call and we will make other arrangements. Next was the had to be 1st aid and CPR certified. They also had to read up and understand his equipment and that signs and symptoms of potential problems that as you all know cold go from bad to worse in 2nds. They were instructed to call 911 1st and us 2nd if Gavin started to have any trouble. Trust me I told them if that pager goes off for Gavin I would be coming. Let me tell you these girls were great and when they went off to college we sure missed having such reliable sitters. My mom does a great job with Gavin! She does the very best she can to keep Gavin healthy! It must be working. He is doing so much better this year with being sick that is than he aver has. He is getting bigger and stronger and healthier!!!!!! So I think I'm gonna start a preemie baby-sitting service!!! What do ya think! I'm more than qualified! I'm a medic. I living the preemie life style.

Only requirement I have is we need great movies, frozen pizza, chip, candy, and pop. I'm also good house keeper. Now I've been known to act like a 5 year old so I would fit in great.

I also have 9 nieces and nephews with two more on the way. Uncle Steve is there favorite. At least I'm the one they all pick on.

I think I would be great at it. I've all ready offered to Darcy a dozen times so she and Randy can get a much deserved night out, even all day and night out. So if you have another parent close to you that could use a night out offer the time to help them! Let them get a few hours out. There is nothing more reassuring than knowing that the person watching your children is used to having a preemie around. It would make me feel better. It would also give the grandparents a break from being the main sitters for us! I hope your week goes well. Peace and love. Steve

The Grandkids 2006

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