Sister Spotlight: Chelsea Dawson

Hooray! A new sister has moved into our ward (Jenna King’s home) just a couple of months ago. Her name is Chelsea Dawson, her husband is Ben Dawson, and they have four children: Brooklynn is 4 years old, Lincoln is 2, and a set of twins, Landon and Jaden who are 1 year old. Chelsea moved from Mesa, Arizona to Utah with her family when she was ten years old. She is in the middle with one brother and one sister.

She met her husband in high school. Ben became the store manager of Tenney’s Pizza in Saratoga Springs, working there for seven years and delivering pizzas to the Alpine School District. Ben is now the co-owner of a new Tenney’s Pizza which is being built near the Riverton Hospital which should be up and running in a month. Chelsea works part time at Tenney’s Pizza three days a week making 500 pizzas early morning until noon. With this new Tenney’s Pizza and with the contract they now have with the Jordan School District, pizzas will be delivered to the schools in that area.

When Chelsea has time, she loves doing crafts, baking, and planning parties for her children. Her favorite food is Italian (that better be the case with all the pizzas she is making for their business!). Her favorite calling is teaching in Primary and their goal for the future is building up their pizza business. Her guilty pleasure is, of course, chocolate!

We are so grateful they found a home in Riverton for their sweet family. Let us all welcome Chelsea when we see her in the hallway at church and in our meetings. To know you is to love you, Chelsea!

Sister Spotlight: Ashlyn Flynn

Our sweet sister Ashlyn Flynn moved into our River Rose ward in October 2014. Ashlyn and her husband Riley have a son, Ridge, and are excited to be pregnant with another boy.

She was born in Anaheim, CA, with her family eventually settling in Mesa, Arizona. There are five children in her family with her being the middle child.

She has known her husband, Riley, since the 8th grade when he was a sophomore. After high school, she attended school learning phlebotomy and then worked at a hospital in Mesa. Ashlyn was 18 years old and her husband Riley 20 years old when they married in the Mesa Temple. Riley became a pilot for Sky West Airlines this past October 2014. 

Ashlyn enjoys redoing furniture, especially dressers. She also enjoys working out at our Herriman Recreation Center in the aerobic classes 3 to 5 times a week. When asked what is her favorite food she said, “everything,” especially Chinese and Mexican. Her goals for the future is to continue with her nursing school as she would like to be a nurse someday. One of her guilty pleasures is sugar and sour candy.  

Let us all welcome Ashlyn when we see her in the hallway at church and in our meetings. We are fortunate to have this sweet family in our ward.  

Sister Spotlight: Teri Flynn

Our sister, Teri Flynn, was born in Murray, Utah and grew up in Holliday. Her family consisted of five children with her as the middle child.  Her dad was an airline pilot for Pan American Airlines and was in the National Guard flying planes. On his last day before retiring with the National Guard, he was flying with his younger brother and they both were killed in an airplane accident in the Utah mountains.  This happened 30 years ago, and last year all Teri’s family hiked up the mountain where the plane came down. They were surprised to find some of the airplane parts still there.  All the family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, wrote notes on paper, put them into a time capsule, and buried it on that mountain.  

Teri went to college at BYU for three years and then married Thomas Patrick Flynn, who is now a mechanical engineer for Tesoro.  They have four biological children and adopted two boys 12 years ago. They have lived in Texas, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona.  They moved to Riverton in October from Arizona.  Her hobbies and talents are anything outdoors: tennis, gardening, hiking, and crafts.  Her favorite food is Italian, especially at Carrabbas restaurant. And like most of us, she enjoys anything chocolate.  Teri keeps herself busy substituting for the Canyon District School part time and works also part time as a phlebotomist doing health screening. 

It was so enjoyable visiting with Teri.  We are so glad that they decided to settle in Riverton.  We will all enrich our lives getting to know this family better. Welcome to Riverton, Flynn family!

Sister Spotlight: Anne Esposito

The Relief Society Welcoming Committee would like to introduce another sister that has moved into our ward just recently… Sister Anne Esposito.  Anne (pronounced Annie) was born in Queens, Brooklyn, New York.  She has one brother and one sister and is the middle child. She moved to Utah seven years ago to be closer to her children. She has two sons and one daughter, Natalie who is living with her and is the Laurel president in our ward.  She has three grandchildren, a 5 year old, 3 year old, and a 9 month old. How fortunate she is to have all her children living around her in Utah.  

Anne is a convert to the church.  She was introduced to the gospel at the age of 14 years old when her older sister was baptized. Later, when visited by sister missionaries, she was baptized at the age of 22. Her mom and dad both passed away last year and Anne was able to do her mom’s temple work and is now working on her dad’s work.  Anne attended a college in Saddle Back, California and graduated with a degree in biology in nursing. She works at the Salt Lake City Behavioral Health clinic as a registered nurse which keeps her very busy. In visiting with her we realized how much Anne likes helping people. 

Anne is now divorced, but during her early married years she and her husband traveled to Italy, France, Amsterdam, Australia and many other places because of his work and then they took a cruise in the Mediterranean to Turkey, Greece, and Italy.  Her hobbies are reading and traveling. It was
​difficult for her to say which foods she enjoys (she mentioned Indian, Asian, and African food).  Since she was born and raised in the “melting pot” of New York City she enjoys all foods.  Her favorite callings were teaching in Relief Society, working with the young women, and teaching cub scouts. Her goal for the future is going back to school to receive her Masters degree in nursing and to get her daughter Natalie off on her mission.

How enjoyable it was to visit with Anne and to get to know her better. We are fortunate to have her and her daughter, Natalie, in our ward and excited to get to know them even better!

Sister Spotlight: Haley Rose

The River Rose Welcoming Committee would like to introduce Haley Rose and her family. She and her family moved to Riverton last September, so they are fairly new to our ward.  Haley was born and grew up in North Ogden with her mom and dad and eight children.  She is fortunate to have all but one sister living in the Utah area. She attended Weber State College for four years and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Therapy. Her husband, Brock, graduated from Weber State College with a degree in criminal justice, law, and management. She knew her husband while in high school, he went on his mission, and they found each other at Weber State College with both of them being on the track team. They have lived in Colorado and Rock Springs, Wyoming because of jobs with Wal-Mart.  Brock, her husband, in now the manager of the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market right here in Riverton. They have three small children: Braxton (4 years old), Conner (2 years old), and Braylee, their little girl (8 months). Haley is able to stay home with their children.  

Haley is an outdoors girl who enjoys sports, especially track and running.  Her favorite food is chicken and favorite calling is teaching in the Relief Society.  Her goals for now and in the future are to raise healthy children and to stay strong in the church.  Her guilty pleasure is chocolate… like most of us!  In asking her if she has a funny personal story, she remembered just recently while shopping in a store, a Taylor Swift song that they always sing in the car came on.  Her young children started humming the song, and then singing it loudly with shoppers smiling and enjoying her young children.  I had an enjoyable time visiting with Haley and getting to know her cute children better and being introduced to her husband, Brock.  To know this sweet family is to love them!  Welcome to the River Rose ward.

Sister Spotlight: Rachel Howells

Rachel Howells and her cute family moved into our ward in May. Her journey to our neck of the woods is full of lots of awesome stops along the way and here are a few:

She’s the fourth of nine children and was raised in upstate New York. She earned money for her mission as an au pair (nanny) in Germany and, a year later, was called to serve the people of Argentina. After her mission, Rachel attended Brigham Young University in Provo and that’s where she met her husband, Dan, who was a student at the University of Utah. His cousins were friends of Rachel’s and he would often hang out with them. Soon after they were married, they moved to Oregon where Dan attended optometry school and Rachel became a mommy. They lived in Idaho while Dan interned at an Indian Reservation and Rachel finished her bachelor’s degree and had another baby. When Dan became an optometrist for a pediatric neuro ophthalmologist in New York, the family moved to a 100 acre farm where they mastered the art of growing all sorts of vegetables and herbs. They had six children, five boys and one girl, by the time they moved to Utah. 

Dr. Dan is our local optometrist and owns Cornerstone Vision (by Kneaders) and Rachel homeschools her darling children. The family loves to hike, bike, camp, rock climb, and anything else that involves the outdoors. The kids also participate in theater and were just in the Riverton Arts Council’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Rachel helped build the awesome sets. She also enjoys reading and the occasional well-deserved nap. We love having the Howells in our ward and are excited to get to know them even better!

Sister Spotlight: Tiffany Tracy

The Welcoming Committee would like to introduce another sister that has moved into our ward in April: Sister Tiffany Tracy.

Tiffany was born and grew up in Kaysville, Utah, being the youngest in the family of three girls and two boys. She met her husband, Stephen, while going to college at UVU in Orem. They have two children: a daughter named Riley who is 2 ½ years old and a son, Beckham, who is 5 months old.

An interesting story is that her husband, Stephen, served a mission in Seattle and became acquainted with his mission president and his family. After he returned home and dated Tiffany, Stephen discovered that his mission president was Tiffany’s uncle. So many of her family members already knew Stephen before she did.

Since marriage, they have moved eleven times with six of those years living in North Salt Lake accepting promotions with Target Stores. They moved to Riverton five months ago as the manager of the West Jordan Target store.

Some of Tiffany’s favorite things to do are going shopping and doing crafts, and she is now learning to sew. She also enjoys sports and has a mom who is a personal trainer who would love to teach a class in our Relief Society! Her mom works at Gold’s Gym.

Her favorite restaurants are Mexican restaurants; however, she says that she could eat breakfast cereal three times a day. Like with most of us, one of her guilty pleasures is chocolate.

Let us all welcome Tiffany as we see her in the hallway and in our meetings at church. We are fortunate to have this sweet family in our ward!

Sister Spotlight: Holli Waters

The River Rose Welcoming Committee would like to introduce you to Holli Waters and her family. Since they have been in our ward a few months, many of you may have already met Holli.

She was born and raised in Sandy, Utah, and is the daughter of Bryan and Debi Polsen and a sister to Julee Ann Hamilton and Burgandy Keddington who all live in our River Rose ward. She is number five of six children in their family and is the youngest daughter.

After becoming a nurse at UVSC, she met her husband Brayden in 2004. They lived in Herriman for a few years and then moved to Riverton. Her husband works as a Maintenance Manager for South Jordan City. They have three children: Braxton who is 7 years old, Hunter who is 4 years old, and Annalea who is their little one year old.

Holli works from home on call as a Triaje nurse for Hospice receiving calls from Georgia all the way to Hawaii. She is also the director of a Beehive Home in Riverton. As most of us know, Holli grew up in a singing family and loves to sing. She enjoys arts and crafts and is learning sign language.

Her favorite food is roasted veggies with baked chicken, and when asked about her favorite calling, she said it “has to be working in the Young Women’s program.” A few of her guilty pleasures are watching “Real Housewives” and “Fox News,” which helps pass the time away while waiting for calls coming in for work.

It was an enjoyable time visiting with Holli. As we all know and love the Poulsen family, let us all get to know Holli and her family as well. We are so happy to welcome you, Holli, and your family into the River Rose ward. 

Sister Spotlight: Katie DeMonja

Katie DeMonja grew up in Brigham City, UT. She has 2 brothers and 1 sister and is the second oldest in the family. She attended Utah State University and got her degree in technical writing. Katie and her husband, Nathan, knew each other in Brigham City while growing up, but started dating in college. After dating for two years, they got married in the Logan Temple. Nathan is a teacher at Oquirrh Hills Middle School and teaches English and history, and Katie is a stay at home mom. The couple have two beautiful children: Lucy who is 1 year old and Ben who is 3 years old. Katie's hobbies are painting, sports, and playing the piano. Her favorite callings have been in the Young Women and Primary.  Katie's goals for the future are to buy a minivan and a house, paint more often, and study the scriptures. Her guilty pleasures are reading and eating treats. She started running with the 'Stake Fun Run' last spring and is trying to keep it up. 

Sister Spotlight: Olivia Peterson

Olivia was born in South Jordan. She has three older brothers and one older sister, making her the “baby” in the family. She married Kyler Peterson last July, so they are our newlyweds in the ward. Kyler is the manager of T-Mobile in downtown Salt Lake.

She received her medical assistant nursing degree, and is planning on going back to school to receive her Bachelor's degree in nursing, which should take about three years. Before her move to Riverton, she worked at The Huntsman Breast Cancer Clinic.

Volleyball is her favorite sport--she played competitive volleyball in high school--and she still loves to play whenever she gets a chance. In her younger years, she learned how to play the violin. Italian food is her favorite cuisine.

Because her mother is a travel agent who owns her own agency, Olivia and Kyler are able to travel with hotel and other benefits. For instance, to help celebrate her grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, her family went on a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean. She, her husband, and other family members are going to Disneyland this coming week to celebrate her sister’s birthday. I’m thinking that we all need a travel agent mother in our family!

A FUN fact about Olivia: She has always loved Olivia the Pig cartoon character and because of this, on her 12th birthday, her mother gave her a real live Pot-belly Pig! Since her move to Riverton, her pig is staying at her mother’s house.

It was an enjoyable time visiting with Olivia, and we are so fortunate to have her and her husband living in our River Rose ward. Take the time to say hi to her and welcome her into our ward. To know you is to love you, Olivia!

Sister Spotlight: Linda Gallagher

Linda was born and grew up on an island in Rhode Island called Aquidneck Island. Some of her family still live there. Linda is the oldest child in their family, with one brother and three sisters.

Because she and her family grew up Catholic, Linda went to Catholic schools with nuns being her teachers. She became a member of the church after marriage when missionaries came to her door. Five months later she and her husband were baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 Linda has five children- four sons and one daughter. Two of her sons and their wives live in Utah (Herriman and Cottonwood Heights) while the other two live in Boston with their families. Her 16-year-old daughter, Megan, is busy in the Young Women’s program and planning on going to girl’s camp. Linda has ten grandchildren who range in ages from 7 months old to a 7 year old, with three of them being triplets! So she has all babies in her family.

Linda loves crafts, riding horseback, and photography. One of her guilty pleasures is enjoying ice cream. She and her daughter were able to fly to Boston this past April, and Linda is planning on returning for a vacation in August which happily means also driving to Rhode Island to be with family.

It was such an enjoyable time visiting with Linda. What a sweet sister she is! Be sure to say hi to her when you see her in the halls and our church classes. To know you is to love you, Linda and Megan! We welcome the both of you into our ward!

Sister Spotlight: Cindy Cherry

Sister Cindy Cherry has lived in Riverton for four years, but with the new ward boundary changes, she has been in our ward for 3 weeks. She is the oldest child in her family, having two brothers and three sisters. She was born in Florence, Alabama. Since her father had been in the Navy, they moved around almost every year, being in most of the United States. During her high school years, Cindy lived in El Sereno, California (the Lost Angeles area) where there were lots of problems with gangs. Cindy was always scared going to school and glad to be home safe when school was over.

With missionaries knocking on her door when she was 16 years old, Cindy liked what she heard, enjoyed the spirit they brought into her home, and in telling her mom who was Catholic that she would like to invite them back, her mom said, “If it makes you happy, Cindy, then invite them back.” Cindy was baptized a few months later. She lost her closest friend when her mom died at 53 years old when Cindy was 29 years old. She still misses her terribly!

Cindy met her husband when he was serving a mission in the town where she was living. After his mission, he came back for her and they were married in the Los Angeles temple. They have four children: two sons who live with their families in Herriman, one son with his family in Heber City, and one daughter, Dani, who is living with her. Cindy loves her seven grandchildren ranging from the ages of 7 months old to 18 years old. 

Her hobbies and talents are crocheting, making Christmas ornaments, and crafts. Her favorite restaurant is Los Hermanos and her guilty pleasure is Belgium shell shaped Chocolates. She loves sea shells and has them all around her home.

Ten years ago Cindy started working at Church Headquarters at the Joseph Smith building in the Family History department. She had to quit her job and was put on permanent disability since she is suffering from nuropathy from her both knees to her feet having no feeling in either of them. She gets around in her motorized wheelchair. 

Cindy is such a compassionate person with a wonderful sense of humor. She was told what a happy person she is living in her wheelchair. Her answer was “You don’t have to look too far to see people a lot worse.” And...”Life’s a choice. You can make it be crappy or make it joyful. I prefer to live it joyfully!” 

To know you is to love you, Cindy! We are glad that you are now in our ward!

Sister Spotlight: Darlene (Dolly) Kellogg

Here is the spotlight for Sister Darlene (Dolly) Kellogg. Unfortunately, she moved out of the ward recently, but several of you got to meet her and we thought you'd like to know more about her. Thanks so much to Sister Mandy Marquardson for getting to know Dolly and writing this up for us! 

Dolly was born on August 28 in San Francisco, California. When the nurse brought her to her mother, she said, "Here is your little Dolly" (that is how she got her nick name).

Her father was in the military, so she spent a number of years in foreign countries, like Germany and the Philippines. Her family moved to Boise, Idaho, where she graduated high school. It was in Idaho that she was Queen for the Idaho, Oregon, Nevada Appaloosa Association and rode bareback broncs and bulls in rodeos. 

Her husband Bob was her secret high school sweetheart. They met in a graveyard in Idaho and were married five weeks later. She joined the church soon after they were married. They have nine children together and have been married over 50 years. During that time they have lived in over 23 places, mostly due to Bob’s job as a ranch manager. Dolly loves horses as well as all animals. Her favorite place to live was on a ranch in Wyoming, where she had an array of animals. She loved to go camping on horseback in the mountains with pack horses.

Sister Spotlight: Juli Brown

Our sister, Juli Brown, was born in Utah and grew up in Highland, Utah with 2 brothers.  She has been married for five years to husband, Adam, and they have a two year old son named Ryatt.  

Juli injured herself in September 2013 while jumping off a picnic table and is now suffering from back and leg problems.  She has gone to many doctors for tests, X-rays, MRI's, etc since her injury and because of all this and being in a lot of pain is now damaged by her pain medications prescribed by many different doctors.  

She has always loved dancing and working as a dance instructor teaching children at the intermediate level of dancing and does hope to return back to this job she loves in the near future.  Because of her dancing abilities, she received a dancing scholarship.  

She also enjoys singing and has been singing in front of an audience since two years old.  She was in the Miss American Fork pageant twice and won 1st runner-up two years in a row.  

She and her husband, Adam, moved to Georgia a few years ago and also lived in South Carolina & Virginia.  They were glad to return back to Utah because of the many hurricanes and tornadoes they experienced in the South.  

Her husband, Adam, is employed at Vivent Home Security Co. installing security systems in homes.  Some of Juli's favorites are making cookies and her favorite foods are Mexican and Italian.  She also enjoys rock and roll music.  

Juli is such a sweet sister and we all need to get to know her better.  She is now able to come out to Sacrament meeting with her husband and son but because of her injury is not able to stay for the rest of her meetings.  She expressed her thanks for the many sisters who have brought in food and who have helped her...some who she says she never even knew their names.  So want to thank all of you for helping her.  Let's keep Julie in our prayers.  Her main goal in life right now is to get better...soon!

Sister Spotlights: Connie and Heidi

When our River Rose Ward boundaries were changed, Sister Connie Wilson became a member of our ward. She presently serves as a Primary Achievement Day Leader for the 8-9 year old girls. Connie was born in South Salt Lake. She has two brothers and one sister. Connie and her husband had three sons and two daughters. Her first child passed away during childbirth. Her husband passed away 14 years ago. Her children all live in the Riverton area with Connie living with her son Ryan and Heidi and their four children. Two of her children are police officers (a daughter and a son) and her son, Ryan who is our Bishop, works for Deseret Book. She has twelve grandchildren and one great grandson. She has always loved sports. When she was younger, she loved bowling, snowmobiling, riding four wheelers, hiking and camping. She says that anything outdoors was her passion. Connie and her husband enjoyed reading, learning, and studying together history biographies such as The Biography of Abraham Lincoln and reading about many of our Mormon pioneers. For 35 years, she and her husband owned a river rafting company called "The White Water West Rafting Company". She says that "they ran rivers" on the Snake River and other rivers in Utah. Her favorite food is "all foods" but especially Mexican and Italian. Connie says that, "living with her son, Ryan and Heidi and her four grandchildren is like a little bit of heaven." We are so grateful having Sister Connie Wilson in our River Rose Ward.





Sister Heidi Wilson joined our ward when our River Rose Ward split. Her husband is our bishop, Bishop Ryan Wilson. Heidi was born in Salt Lake City and lived there most of her life. Heidi is the oldest of four girls. Her mother and father are still living in SLC. She and her husband Ryan have been married for 17 years. Eight years ago, Heidi, with her husband and four children, moved to Riverton, Utah. Their children are Whitney, age 13, Jayden, age 11, Brinley, age 7, and Haylee, age 2. Ryan works at Deseret Book. Heidi is enjoying her calling as the 8-9 year old Primary Achievement Day leader which is held in Heidi's home. Her hobby is that she loves cleaning her house and being with her family. She also enjoys camping with her family. The Texas Roadhouse is her favorite place to eat. While Heidi is busy with her four children, she also works for Discover Card as the senior collections manager from 6 am to noon. Although all their family will be going waterskiing and May and they all love the outdoors, their favorite vacation spot is Disneyland. She says that she loves everything Disney. We are so glad you are in our ward, Heidi, and bringing our Bishop with you! Thanks for being our bishop's wife and supporting him in this busy calling. To Know You is To Love You, Heidi! --contributions by Barbara Davis, Relief Society Welcoming Committee

Sister Spotlights: Lurbyn Arely Ramirez

Sister Lurbyn Arely Ramirez has been in the Ward for 8 months, her calling is a Visiting Teaching Supervisor.

Lurbyn was born in Honduras, Central America. As a child Lurbyn’s family moved to New York State and soon after that Lurbyn, her mother and sister joined the Church, that was 48 years ago and then they moved to Utah. Lurbyn grew up in Provo, Utah.  Went to BYU and for four years was in the BYU Latin American Folk Dancers Group and has a minor in dancing. She also was a teacher’s assistant in some dance classes at BYU as a student.  Can you tell she loves dancing?

She is the younger of two children. At present her sister is serving a mission with her husband at the MTC in Mexico City as the Mental Health advisor. She worked 32 years for the LDS Family Services and recently took an early retirement. 

Lurbyn lived in San Diego, California, and as a single parent she finished raising her three children: her oldest son who served a mission in McAllen, Texas and after his mission met a girl from St. George, Utah and they were sealed in the San Diego Temple.  Her second oldest daughter met a returned missionary who served his mission in Bolivia, he is from San Diego and they were also sealed in the San Diego Temple and her youngest daughter is still single. So far she has 4 grand-children.  Lurbyn really enjoy her children and grand-children and spends as much time as she can with them.

Lurbyn has served many callings in the church: She has been President, counselor and teacher of Relief Society, Primary and Young Women. She has worked for the Church 17 years and enjoys it very much. She also loves dancing, reading church and health books.  She loves and enjoys life, and she is so grateful to Heavenly Father for she has been so blessed throughout her life and by her family joining the church, she was able to grow up with the gospel in her life.

We are so happy to have Lurbyn in our River Rose Ward.

Tabitha

What an enjoyable time I had visiting with a new sister in our ward- Tabitha Slaughter and getting to know her. Tabitha and her family moved to Riverton four months ago.  While visiting with her, I was impressed how her young daughter, Macey, got out her coloring book and crayons and quietly colored those pages while us grownups visited with no interruptions. 

Tabitha was born in Cerritos, California.  Besides her mom and dad, there were six other siblings.  At the age of 5 years old they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico until she was 12 years old.  She described how wonderful it was to live nearby where the Balloon Festival takes place every year, and how she watched those beautiful, large balloons filling the sky. 

At the age of 12 years old she and her family moved to Woods Cross, Utah and then at 16 years old to Waukee, Iowa.  While in Waukee she met her husband, Eric, who was not a member of the church.  Being impressed with Tabitha’s lifestyle of being a Mormon, he visited with missionaries and was eventually baptized. 

Shortly after they were married in Waukee her husband joined the Army and they moved to Arlington, VA. While there, Eric who was an honor guard, performed many funerals at the Arlington cemetery…usually about six funerals a day. This is where their son, Caden, was born. Caden is now 8 years old.

The army moved them to Columbus, GA where Eric was a drill sergeant at Ft. Benning for two years.  This was their first ward together as a Mormon family.  Eric spent seven years in the Army. They had their second child, Macey, while in Columbus.  Macey is now 4 ½ years old.  

Off to Utah they went where they now live on 134^th Street managing the Storage Units.  Eric is also working towards his Master’s Degree taking classes two days a week at the University of Utah.  Their third child, June, five months old, was born in Utah.

Tabitha enjoys quilting and has made some beautiful quilts.  She also loves cooking, baking, and playing the piano. She enjoys working out which she is not able to do as often as she would like now that she has three small children.  Impressive that she and her husband ran a marathon.

Tabitha is so easy to talk with.  She has a sweet personality.  When you see her in the halls and classrooms, take time to say hi to her and you will see what I mean about how sweet she is!  So glad that she and her family has moved into our ward.  To know you is to love you, Tabitha!

Mckenzi and Marilyn

Mckenzi Dixon:

In the middle of a cold snap - 16 degrees and snowy - Mckenzi Dixon shared that her favorite vacations involved sunshine and the ocean: renting a beach house on Mission Beach in San Diego for a week and taking a Caribbean cruise. Ah, can't you just hear the surf???   But back to reality...

Mckenzi's birthday was May 2nd and she is a senior at Herriman High School.

When she was in 5th grade, the Dixon family moved to their home on Crimson Patch Way from West Jordan.Mckenzi is the only girl in her family and has 3 brothers. To her chagrin, she is not treated like a princess!

Mckenzi is very fortunate to have her great-grandmother, now 104 years old, still living close by. Another family distinction is that her maternal great-grandfather, Elder Robert L. Simpson who passed away in 2003, was a General Authority who married her parents in the Salt Lake Temple. 

Some of Mckenzi's likes are: drawing, film studies and painting. Shrimp is her favorite food, and like many of her peers she enjoys dancing, movies and music.

On the verge of turning 18 in a few months, Mckenzi has one foot in Young Women's and one foot in Relief Society. If you see a cuddly, dark-haired young woman snuggled up to her mom, Kami, in Relief Society some Sunday, please stop and say hello. Watch for those dimples to appear!


Marilyn Bluth

Marilyn Bluth moved into 5046 W. London Bay in July. She is finding that one-by-one, siblings, children, and other family members are moving to the Herriman area. Marilyn recalls a time when Brigham Young sent a member of her family to settle this area. It is like a homecoming of sorts!

Born in El Paso, Texas, Marilyn's parents moved the family to Utah when she was 14. As an adult she moved to Oregon and lived there for 20 years before moving back to Utah to care for her mother who suffered from Alzheimer's. After her mother's passing she felt it was time to move. And we are the lucky recipients!

Marilyn has three children: a daughter in Pocatello, a daughter who moved next door and is renting the Davis' family home while they are serving a mission in England, and a son who is attending school in Eugene. She has five grandchildren, whose visits are always a delight; and also has a cat, who is more like a child than an animal!

This is a stressful time of year for Marilyn working as a dispatcher for Fed-Ex and trying to get everyone's presents delivered on time! When not working, she loves hanging out with her sister - they laugh and have a lot of fun together no matter what they do. One goal Marilyn completed this year is indexing 10,000 names by December 1st (before work got too hectic). Her sister is an indexer at the prison, so they enjoyed a healthy competition!

Marilyn has a fun personality and a beautiful laugh. She will be a wonderful addition to our ward family!

Madeline

Madeline Kenyon

Madeline Kenyon is bright and buoyant. She turned 17 on August 13th this year and is a senior in high school. 

It can sometimes be difficult to be the oldest sibling - responsible for setting an example, etc., but Madeline is up to the challenge! She has hopes and dreams! She has goals! And wow, is she talented! Madeline plays lacrosse, sings in the school choir and played violin in the school orchestra until life got too busy.

Some of the things Madeline enjoys is Italian food, 80's music, reading classics, dating and going to movies. Having taken French for two years, and now ASL, she has always looked forward to serving a mission. (She is keeping her fingers crossed for France, like her mother!) In the meantime, Madeline is a fabulous babysitter and is saving her money for her mission and college!

Madeline's goals for the future includes becoming a speech pathologist. Being financially wise, she wants to attend SLCC for the first two years of generals, then go to USU. Told you she was smart!

Belinda and Terralee

Belinda Ortiz

We had a delightful visit with Belinda at her home on Duncan Meadows Ln.  She is a warm and welcoming sister, who was born in Southern Chile and her family moved to Northern Chile when she was a teenager. She really loved the place she grew up because it was never winter and the weather was always nice and the landscape was very beautiful.

She converted to the Church when she was in high school. She, her mom and her brother were baptized at the same time. Her mom and sister and brothers are still in Chile. She is one of five children in her family, and she and one of her brothers live in the United States.

Four years after she got married in Chile, she and her husband moved to the United States and lived in Montana then moved to Utah. She was married for 25 years and has been divorced for a year.  She has three children.  Addy is 24 years old, Camila is 22, and Emily is 11.

When we asked her about her hobbies, she said she loves to go walking, and also plays Ping-Pong and tennis. She also loves to read the scriptures and other books. She loves traveling and would like to see as many islands and beautiful gardens as possible.

Belinda said the biggest adventure in her life has been to come to the United States. She really enjoys some of the cultural differences, such as the food we eat in America. She has also experienced some culture shock, such as the pace of life and the weather in the U.S.

We were glad to get to know Belinda.  We are so happy to have her in the River Rose Ward. WELCOME Belinda!

 
Terralee Cazier

Have you been the mom of three very young children?  If so, you have experienced the stage in life that Terralee Cazier is enjoying at this moment.  She is the proud mom of daughters, Evelyn, 6 yrs old; Addison, 3 yrs old; and son, Ammon, 5 months old.  She and her husband are so happy to have their little family. They have been married for 11 years in June,  when they were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple.

When Terralee graduated from high school, she became a dental assistant and hygienist.  She continued working in that field until she was able to become a stay at home mom.  Her first love of course, is spending time with her family.  She also likes to find time to read, but time is at a premium with three young kids.

Terralee and her husband were able to get away for a really fun vacation to California together, without the kids.   They felt very spoiled by getting to stay in a really nice hotel. They actually went to Disneyland (such a fun thing to do as adults alone!).  The thing that was even more fun was to go on a whale watching cruise.  Unfortunately, they didn't see any whales but were able to spot some dolphins.  As much as we love our kids, it is so important to get away with our spouses to enjoy and do fun things together focusing on each other, again.  Then it's always great to get back home to our families, and appreciate the lives that we are so blessed to be living.

Terralee, we are so happy you and your family have moved into our ward.  We are glad to add your children to our Primary and to the wonderful group of young mothers and children who live around you on Duncan Meadows.  Your neighbors are awesome and those of us who live a few blocks away, also are anxious to get to know you better.