The Story Behind the Name

Henry Parker Black

It is no secret that Andrew and I had a difficult time agreeing upon a name for Henry. It was a debate for months. I had lists of names that I would have considered, Andrew had one.

As everyone knows, Andrew is an avid fly fisherman. One day he came up with the inspiration to name our son after one of his favorite places. . . the Henry's Fork of the Snake River. A trip to Rexburg is not complete without a day of fishing on the Henry's Fork.

All growing up Andrew has memories of his Dad taking him and his siblings each Memorial Day weekend to Henry's Lake to fish on opening day. This continues to be one of his most treasured annual family traditions.

Andrew convinced Kimball and Hazel early on that the new baby should be named Henry, after the Henry's Fork. When asked what the baby's name was going to be Hazel actually started to answer, "Henry, Henry's Fork Black".

Now convincing me to name our child after a river was not quite as easy; Andrew took a different approach that he knew I couldn't pass up. After I voiced my dislike for the river idea he reminded me that the name is shared by one of my favorite General Authorities, Henry B. Eyring. He had me. I would be honored to name our son after such a man of God. I look forward each General Conference to hear from this spiritual giant, his humble declarations, as a witness of Jesus Christ, frequently move me to tears. It would be a privilege to use his name for our son.

Henry B. Eyring is Spencer W. Kimball's nephew, so it would be a perfect name addition to our family to tie Kimball and Henry to LDS church leaders. (One of the names that I liked the most was Spencer. Andrew told me multiple times that it just wouldn't work to have both a Spencer and a Kimball.)

Parker is a family name. My Grandma Sharon's maiden name is Parker. I really liked the idea of Parker as a first name, but it ended up being used as a middle name instead.

So there you have it, Henry Parker Black is named after Henry B. Eyring. (Unless you ask Andrew.)

Henry's Blessing

Henry was blessed last week on Sunday, February 20, 2011. We were grateful to have so many family members able to attend, especially with the snow storm that blew in Saturday night.

Here is Daddy and his little future fishing buddy.

Here is a picture of Henry with the priesthood holders who stood in on the blessing.

Bishop Russ Dickson, Uncle Tom Black, Grandpa Black, Daddy, Uncle Brent Black, Uncle Nathan Mo'o, & Uncle Randy Black. (Grandpa Dave was there for the blessing but left right after and wasn't in the picture.)

It was special to be able to have all, but one, of Andrew's siblings there for the big day. We had a house full for dinner afterward. It was a special day!

Quilts from Grandma(s) & Hair

Grandma Black always starts making baby blankets as soon as she finds out that there is a new baby on the way to the family. For Henry she made a cowboy/horse receiving blanket, and this darn cute animal blanket. She has an embroidery machine and used it to embroider animals on the squares. (My favorite animal is the green embroidered frog right in the middle.) She also makes beautiful white afghans for each of the grand kids to be used on their blessing day. It is special that each of the kids has their own afghan saved in my cedar chest with their blessing clothes from their special day. Maybe someday they will be able to pass on the beautiful handmade gift from Grandma Black to their children on their blessing day.

Here is Hazel with her beautiful white afghan, made by Grandma Black, on her blessing day.

Grandma Connie started a tradition, she makes a fancy new blanket for each of her grand kids as they are born. It is a complicated applique process where she has to sew the fabric onto the paper pattern and piece it all together for each block of the quilt. She made this jungle animal blanket for Henry. It took Many hours to complete, and she used many different types of fabric and embellishments. She had it finished even before Henry was born. Isn't it darling!

(I cannot decide if the giraffe, monkey, or elephant is my favorite.)

These two pictures were taken two days after coming home from the hospital. Notice the loads of dark hair that Hazel has compared to Henry's very light hair. I could not find an early baby picture of Kimball to include, but his hair was about as dark as Hazel's hair, just not as much. This is why I have been so shocked by Henry, I wouldn't have believed he was our baby if I hadn't seen with my own eyes. We are still very curious about what color his eyes will be, both Kimball and Hazel have very dark brown eyes, but Henry may break that chain too.

This is Hazel on her ducky quilt from Grandma Connie.

(Notice that the duckies have pink bows on their heads.)

The Blessing of Primary Teachers

We watched the Superbowl yesterday. (Yes we were a bit disappointed with the outcome.) Andrew and the kids were wearing Steelers hats for awhile during the game. Hazel took hers off and misplaced it. She started walking around looking for it and asking where it was. We told her we didn't know and to just keep looking for it. A few minutes later she walked back in and said, "I learned in my CTR 4 class that if you loose something you can pray for help to find it, so I just said a little prayer in my room. Dad will you help me look for my hat?" Of course Andrew jumped right up and helped her search for it. A few minutes later they located it. (We also taught Hazel that you should thank Heavenly Father after he has helped you with something, like finding your hat.)

I am so grateful to primary teachers who are teaching gospel principals to my children. I am amazed at the things that come out of Hazel's mouth that start with, "I learned in my CTR 4 class that . . . ". Each week Hazel tells me she doesn't want to go to primary, but then after church she tells me what she has learned and how much she likes her new teachers. Funny Girl!!!

Happy 7th Birthday Kimball!

Wow it seems like only yesterday you were turning 1 year old.

Kimball, we are so happy to have you in our family.

We love you very much!

The cake is supposed to be a Lego, but it was getting late and I frosted it in about 7 minutes, so it looks really poor. Kimball didn't care how it looked, all he cared about was that it was a chocolate cake.

Mom, Hazel, & Henry took McDonalds to school for Kimball for lunch. We sat in the foyer and ate lunch together. We also took balloons tied onto a bag of peanuts for him too. The balloons were black, silver, and yellow Happy Birthday balloons with a large football shaped mylar Steelers balloon. (Kimball was born on Superbowl Sunday 7 years ago. His favorite football team is the Steelers, so he is really looking forward to them playing in the Superbowl this Sunday.)

For his birthday Kimball got: Hot Wheels cars and tracks, 4 games for his Nintendo DS, new pjs, a camouflage bathrobe (that he has worn everyday since), bubble bath & colored bath fizzies (from Hazel), & 2 Lego Ninjago sets. He was so patient, he didn't get to open any presents until that night right before bed time, but he made up for it by getting up the next morning at 5:00 to play.

Happy Birthday Buddy!