href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3805/2984/1600/777558/DSC_0014.jpg">border="0" alt="" />



More Christmas pictures... We went to visit Michael and Ally and got an adorable picture of their son, Nikos, with Ava. I think that they are going to be pals! And a few other holiday pictures.

Last week Debra (Michael's sister) came to visit us. We had a lot of fun hanging out with her! Ava loved having her young, cool auntie around!

Also we recently went to the big Iles Christmas with Michael's dad's side of the family. We got a picture of the Iles men with their babies while we were there. Ava enjoyed opening her presents:) We really enjoyed seeing everyone, they are a fun crowd!
We also went to visit Michael's Grandma Wickman' it was great to see her, too. We snapped a picture of Ava with her great-grandma.

Zoo Lights

We went to the zoo lights at the Columbus Zoo last week. Ava was very interested in the lights, which was neat for us to see. She even endured the cold weather... she's pretty tough. The holidays have been really exciting this year! It's so fun to watch her experience things for the first time.

Cinci and Oreos

We traveled to Cinci this past weekend for a baptism. Our good friends, Michael and Ally, celebrated the baptism of their son, Nikos. Michael's mom babysat Ava while we went to the party afterward, which was really nice. We got some really funny pictures of Michael and Michael, who are old friends. I posted one..its actually kind of scary :)
We had fun visiting with Michael's mom in the evening. We went downtown to see some fun Christmas displays, and Ava got to see her first fireworks...she liked them!

On a random note, last week we took some pictures after we gave Ava an Oreo and thought they were funny, so we are sharing them.

Daddy and Ava playing

We reloaded the video, hopefully it works this time!
Sorry about that.

Johnson Christmas

src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3805/2984/320/935807/j-xmas2.jpg" border="0" alt="" />




This past weekend we celebrated an early Christmas with my (Mary's) side of the family. We all packed into my parents house and had lots of fun and ate way too much food. This was the earliest we've ever celebrated Christmas, but with everyone's schedules and limited vacation days, it seemed to work out the best to do it early.
Unfortunately Ava decided to scream during the night/early morning which made for a stressful situation having 4 kids and 2 other babies sleeping in the same house. On Saturday morning Michael and I slept in the car with her from 4:30-8am, so everyone could sleep. I'm sure someday we will look back on that time and laugh, but we definately weren't laughing at the time!
My parents had so the house looking so festive, and had tons of good food. All of the kids had fun playing with each other and the adults had fun catching up and hanging out. We all received and gave gifts, which was fun. The kids had a blast opening lots and lots of presents from their grandparents.

Santa even came to the house, which was really exciting. :) Ava was terrified of him and screamed when she sat on his lap. I think if she would've looked very closely, she may have noticed that he looked very familiar! Do you recognize this very young faced Santa?
It stinks that my family Christmas is already over, but we have a lot more celebrating to look forward to this month.

Johnson Christmas

New Number, New Toy

We have a new cell phone number. We will be emailing it to those who we have email addresses for. If you don't get it by email, here it is: (614)937-2693

Also, as a sweet bonus, we got a free 4 GB iPod nano!

Ava's Walking!

OSU is #1! Go Bucks!

Weekend in Cincinnati

We went to Cincinnati this past weekend. On Saturday Michael's mom and dad babysat Ava so we could go to Cumberland to see Debra cheer. Amy and Jake came into town, too, and rode with us. Debra did really well... I think Michael is still in denial that his baby sister is in college! You can see Debra in the pictures, she's the one up in the air.
The rest of the weekend we hung out with the family. Ava enjoyed getting a ton of attention from everyone.
Sunday night we went to Jen and Tim's wedding. (Jen is Michael's best friend from high school.) Their wedding was really beautiful, and they seemed really happy. Unfortunately we had to leave early to get back to Columbus. And..we totally forgot to bring our camera into the wedding, so we didn't get any pictures. Thankfully we got one of the 3 of us dressed up before we went.

Pictures at the Park

Trick or Treat

We took Ava to the mall for trick or treat. It's pretty cool that Tuttle Mall does this! Most of the retailers stand outside of their store and pass out candy to the kids who come dressed up. It feels really safe, especially to me (mary) who can be really overprotective! :)
Anyway, these are some pictures of Ava in her other costume, We think she made a very cute pumpkin! Thanks Mom J for the costumes!

Boo at the Zoo

This past weekend we went to Boo at the Zoo here in Columbus. It sounds like it would be kinda scarry, but it's not. It's basically just people passing out candy in random stations throughout the zoo. Kids can dress up, so Ava was a bumblebee for the day. My parents came, as well as the Pierces, and their family from PA. It was fun times and the best part was that Ava got a bunch of candy that she is too little to eat, so Michael and I got to eat most of it! :) This is probably the last time we will get away with that before she starts to notice.
We also went to Noah's B-day party, He turned 8. Ava got to participate in the pinata' for the first time...again more candy for Michael and I! :) My mom and dad babysat again, we are getting so spoiled.. It was great! We went minigolfing... Michael won by one putt! We are very competitive at minigolf... but, it was a good game. Then, we went to Easton to walk around and we got our first starbucks carmel applecider of the season, many more to come, I'm sure! Thanks mom and dad for giving us a little break!

The Creek

Well, my wonderful wife let me go camping with my dad last weekend at the creek, and it was awesome. It was the most beautiful fall day we could have asked for, and the creek was crystal clear, and for those of you who have ever been to the creek, you know that doesn't happen often. Since my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease last summer, I have tried to make a point to spend more quality time with him, and thankfully my wife is very encouraging and selfless in this effort. We had a great time hiking, canoeing, skipping rocks, and talking around the fire. He shared memories he had of him and his father, and I was thankful that we were there creating memories of our own. I love my dad, he's a good man. He has chosen not to complain about his illness, and as far as I have observed, he has kept an incredibly positive attitude. I respect him and love him so much, and I know that I am very blessed to have him as a father. I couldn't have had a more fun and relaxing time than I did. As always, I took a ton of pictures, and I hope you enjoy the ones posted here.

Michael