Tarrah Randall

 

Tarrah was born and raised a Southern girl, and by Southern I don't mean Southern Utah. She really was born in Savannah Georgia and she and her family moved all over the South the whole time she was growing up due to her father's work. She lived in several cities in South Carolina, Houston TX, Atlanta GA, Montgomery AL and Birmingham AL. Moving from one place to another was just par for the course in their family, but Tarrah never really liked it. It did however really draw them together as a family. Even to this day, Tarrah's best friend is her sister.

While living in Houston, Tarrah's dad starting taking her with him to the geneology library in Houston. They would spend hours there pouring over microfische and records. He was a convert so they felt a tremendous responsibility to be sure his family's temple work was completed. When they left Houston, there wasn't a geneology library near them, so this hobby had to take a back seat for a while.

Also during her growing up years Tarrah developed a love for sports and especially long distance running. So when Tarrah was in high school she joined the cross country team. In fact, being on the team made attending 3 different high schools bareable. She really appreciated that no matter where she moved to, she always had a ready group of friends with the team. She loved running and was very good at it. She managed to pull a running scholarship to the University of Alabama Huntsville. She really didn't even want to go to College, but she did want to continue running so she took the scholarship.

From the time she was 18 she felt that she was supposed to come and live in Utah, but she fought it. She started that first year at UAH but very quickly was injured. Injury in fact kept her from running most of that year and it quickly became apparent her running days were over. The only reason she had gone to the University was to run, so without being able to pursue a running career, she left school and began working at a pay-day loan company.

She also began attending a single's ward and was actually engaged for awhile, but she didn't feel right about the relationship so she broke up with her fiance and came out west to Centerville Utah to live with her mother's sister. She was able to get a job with another pay-day loan company and began attending a local single's ward where she made some great friends.

One of those friend's mother was a single adult leader in her ward. She was sure that one of her young men in her ward, named Rod Randall, was the perfect match for Tarrah. She gave Rod Tarrah's number but neither of them were keen on the idea of her setting them up so it didn't go anywhere. Fortunately, the lady didn't give up so easily. She invited Tarrah to a CES fireside. Once Tarrah committed to coming, she called up Rod and told him she would be there and he better show up.

He did show up and they met. It wasn't love at first sight. Rod was a blonde and Tarrah didn't date blondes. About 3 weeks later Rod asked her out and after that sparks started flying. The color of his hair was no longer an issue, they were together every day and married 5 months later. Right after marriage they started building a house in Woods Cross and lived there for several years. While living there, their first child, Savannah was born.

Even though their family was small, They felt a tremendous pull to build a bigger house. At the time Heidi and Tom Thackeray (members of our ward) lived in their ward and they were very good friends. The Thackeray's were building a home in this neighborhood so Rod and Tarrah came up and looked at the plans, it felt right and they also started a home in the neighborhood. Tarrah now can see how they were led to this neighborhood. A bigger home was what they needed. Not only have they added two more children to their family, but Tarrah's mom, Marcia Burell, was able to come and live with them in their basement apartment. Tarrah knows this was the right place for them to build a permanent home.

Also the large yard allows Tarrah to have an amazing garden. She loves gardening, a talent she picked up and began enlarging right after she and Rod were married. In her garden she grows, corn, cantaloupe, peas, green beans, every type of pepper, tomatoes, onions, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, pumpkins and even lima beans! They also have apple, peach, walnut and almond trees.

 

Another hobby Tarrah has recently become re-acquainted with in the last couple of years is family history research. She loves it and again feels the tremendous responsibilty to her father's side of the family to make sure his work is done. What a blessing to have the ease of the internet to help her find these people.

Tarrah also has continued to love sports. She loves to play them with her children and on the ward's volleyball team.

Our Relief Society has been so richly blessed with Tarrah and her talents. She is a fabulous member of the Relief Society presidency. She is very approachable and understanding of others. She is definitely a down-to-earth Southern girl, we are so glad she was led here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Leslie Jibson

Leslie was born in Logan Utah.  They moved a few times, mostly within Davis County.  She had a great childhood being a tomboy, hiking the hills and mountains. Leslie also loved playing with hair, makeup and anything "frilly".  Tumbling was a fun sport for Leslie and later became a cheerleader at Viewmont High, where she graduated.  Because Leslie's mom works for the airlines, they had many fun adventures.  Waiting to fly stand by and even spending the night in airports, are only a few memories.

She loved traveling to Europe and enjoyed the beautiful castles, and old history.  Also snorkeling in Cancun is a great memory.   Leslie says that from her childhood, she has learned how to pack lightly and carry on quickly!  While on a double date, Leslie met her boyfriend's friend, Ryan.  Months later, after her and her boyfriend broke up, Ryan saw a great opportunity and asked Leslie on a date. After dating for a year they decided to get married.  Married now for 12 years, they have 4 young children - Lyla 7, Wyatt 5, Sophie 3, and Whit 4 months.

Leslie is a busy mom and loves being with her family and taking care of her kids.  She also enjoys refurnishing furniture, building projects and fixing things.  Being a cosmetologist is one of Leslie's loves, a career that has really helped while Ryan was in law school.  One of Leslies many talents is teaching.  She has held various callings in the church and has loved every one of them.  She also loves meeting new people.  Leslie is the first to welcome a newcomer and has an amazing gift in making all people feel welcome and important (this is my personal experience of Leslie).

If you don't know Leslie, she is one awesome lady to get to know!

Nikki Pendley

 

Nikki was born in Seattle, Washington. She was the 2nd of 4 kids. When she was born, she had a hole in her heart (an ASD) that didn't close on its own, So at age 4 she had open heart surgery. This really scared and bothered Nikki's mother. Her mother was contemplating the situation one day, having a little prayer in her heart about how upset she was that her daughter had a big, ugly scar on her chest, when she heard the Spirit say to her mind, « My son has scars too. » That changed her whole perspective. Over time the scar faded significantly and the surgery has been an incredible blessing in Nikki's life. It has allowed her to live a totally normal and healthy life with just a few minor side effects today.

Because of Nikki's heart problems, when she was younger, her mother was very protective of her. She would never let her do sports or play rough, so Nikki spent a lot of time on the swing set reading. This forged a lifelong love of reading. It also gave her a great academic start. In high school she went on to be a 4.0 student and be part of the honor society. She went on to receive a full ride scholarship to USU.

Nikki's family moved from Seattle to Atlanta, Georgia when she was in 3rd grade. They lived in Atlanta for 5 years and came back to Utah. First, living in St. George and then Lehi. She attended 3 different Jr. High schools. After settling in Lehi, Nikki realized how much she missed living in the mission field. She loved how in the mission field all the LDS kids would hang out together and sincerely try to support and love one another. It took a long time in Lehi to make friends and break into the cliques.

Because of this experience Nikki decided no matter what, she would never belong to a clique. So when she was in high school she was friendly and friends with everybody. She wouldn't even let herself eat lunch with the same people every day. She made sure she was always sitting at a different table socializing with everyone. She kept herself busy by being president of the drama club and was on the debate team, she also worked in the catering company at Thanksgiving Point . Finally during her senior year, she and her mother reached an agreement, and she started running on her own– finally getting the exercise she had long desired.

After high school, she took that full ride scholarship to USU and headed up to Logan. She worked as an RA in the dorms, a job she loved. It gave her some extra spending money to have fun with and she made lots of friends. However, during her Senior year, she decided she really wanted to get an apartment and move out of the dorm life. This wasn't easy since there was only 2 weeks before the term started and there were no open housing contracts to be found.

During that summer, she worked 4 jobs. She was a lifeguard, a swim instructor, was on the USU activities staff and worked for summer housing- hosting groups like EFY and sports camps. One day after work she came home and flopped down on her bed. The thought came to her to call up an old friend she hadn't spoken with in quite a while. At first she dismissed the thought, but as it usually goes, it wouldn't leave her alone. So she finally called her up only to find out her friend was trying to find someone to buy out her housing contract. Nikki had found an apartment.

After securing her apartment, she went home to Lehi for a little visit. While driving on the way back to Logan she started thinking about how she had dated a lot of guys and was really just tired of the dating-for-fun scene. During that ride she had an overwhelming feeling that if she met someone, it was time to take the plunge.

The Monday after school started, Nikki hurried home from her job as a lifeguard to the first ward activity of the school year. Being that she had been in the pool teaching swim lessons and lifeguarding all afternoon, she really wanted to run home and freshen up, but she ran out of time. She decided to go anyways, but only intended to just drop in and make an appearance to meet some of the people in her new ward. On her way out the door a man named Chad Pendley walked in and stopped her and asked her about her lifeguard job, because he had also spent time lifeguarding. They ended up talking for an hour, it was like no one else was in the room, just the two of them. She found out he actually lived in the apartment just above hers. He asked her out a week later and within 2 weeks, they were engaged and married three months later. (That might be a ward record).

Nikki had struggled with PCOS, cysts on her ovaries, so she was unsure if she would be able to have children, but apparently the Lord just overlooked this infertility issue, because she got pregnant on her honeymoon. After that, there followed 5 children rather quickly, all except the 2nd one were natural pregnancies (they did need some fertility treatment to get pregnant with that child). Because the babies came so quick, after graduating from college, Nikki became a full-time stay-at-home-mom right away. She taught piano in her home for a few years, but after the 3rd child came, she couldn't keep up with the kids and teach, so she retired as a piano teacher. She hopes someday to be able to pursue a career, but for now she feels extremely committed to being there for her children.

Nikki and Chad first moved to Boise, ID and then went on to live in Pennsylvania. They loved living in the East and the mission field, but started feeling a tug to come back West to live around family. They decided anywhere west would be fine- except Utah. Chad applied to several jobs over the course of 14 months, but nothing was working out. Finally, he applied for one job in Utah and he got an interview and an offer pretty quickly. They felt like it was the right thing for their family to do, so he took the job and they ended up here in our neighborhood. Although, it wasn't what they thought they wanted, they have actually enjoyed many things about being here. Mostly Nikki loves that her children were able to spend time with and have a deep relationship with Chad's mom before she passed away.

What a treat to have a ward member like Nikki. She is so approachable and that makes her such a wonderful addition to our ward. We are grateful for the many talents she brings and kindness she shares with others so freely.

meet Jeanette Browning

Jeanette was born and raised just outside of Los Angeles CA.   When she was 9 years old, missionaries introduced, taught and baptized her and her family.  Jeannette says that she was a "wallflower" and knew of a "Jock" from a neighboring school name Joe.  It wasn't until after Joes mission, attending institute activities that they officially  met.  Joe and Jeannette dated and were married within a year, now married for 38 years. Jeannette is now retired, after working for the same dentist for over 30 years, she says that her co worker became like family to her.
     After retirement, Joe and Jeanette both decided to move to Utah to be closer to children and grandchildren, beside everything seem to be in favor of the move.  Jeanette enjoys living in Kaysville, loves her home and has a full, happy life.  She just misses her coworker back in CA,  which give her more reason to travel and visit CA.  Jeanette enjoys traveling, cruises, crafts, cooking, baking and helping out her children any way she can.  She keeps herself busy by having grandkids over for sleepovers, dinners, attending grandkids sports, helping her daughter-in-law with laundry to cooking for 170 single adults ( ages 26+).  Jeanette and Joe enjoy and are busy with being able to help their son, who runs an LDS dating website (called LDS meet).  Starting this summer 3 different Lake Powell boat trips will be offered that Jeanette and Joe will always be the much loved cooks.  Between her traveling, visiting friends, cooking for the singles, and spending time with family. Jeannette is a very busy, happy lady and someone fun to get to know.       

Elizabeth Lasson

To say that Elizabeth was born and raised in Kaysville is an understatement. Both of her parents grew up in Kaysville (they were high school sweethearts), and she grew up in the ward her dad grew up in. She is also the 3^rd generation of her family to graduate from Davis High and work on the D-Book staff (yearbook). Her roots are deep here in K-town, so much so that her first child is named Davis after her ancestor Daniel C. Davis whom Davis County is named after. She loves living here and being close to her family, all of whom live in Kaysville.

 

Elizabeth grew up near the location of the new library. She was always very studious and disciplined. While in high school she was part of the yearbook staff (as stated above) and part of the National Honors Society. Grades were very important to her. In fact all the way through school, up until she finished her graduate degree, she never received a lower grade than an A- (except for B's in Jr. High art and PE!)

 

Elizabeth also played the piano. She started when she was about 7. When she was 16 years old, her ward released their organist. There was not another organist in the ward to be had, but Elizabeth had gone to a 2 hour class on how to play the organ sponsored through the stake. With that limited training, and at her father's suggestion (he was the ward clerk), the bishop called her to be the ward organist. Elizabeth was shocked to say the least. She really didn't know how to play, but her parents had taught her to never say no to a calling, so she said yes.

She said her mother was a such a blessing to her during that time. She would take Elizabeth over to the church every week for several hours and stay with her while she practiced and taught herself how to play the organ. She still plays to this day and actually has a lovely organ in her front room. In fact, in one of her last wards, she was able to give lessons to a girl who really wanted to learn to play and she loved it.

 

All of Elizabeth's studying during high school really paid off. She was accepted into the BYU accounting program with a full-ride scholarship. The BYU accounting program was extremely competitive. They have a very intense graduate program that allows students to graduate with their graduate degree in 5 years. Due to Elizabeth's hard work in high school, she was able to have all of her schooling paid for except for the last year. And with her Master's degree, she was able to get her CPA license.

 

Elizabeth loved college. She met Russ in a very large economics class Freshman year, but they never really hung out outside of class. When Russ came home from his mission, he returned to BYU and ended up living in the same complex as Elizabeth (but in a different ward). She happened to be serving as the ward prayer coordinator with Russ's best friend from high school. Russ came over to his friend's house and Elizabeth was there working on her calling. Elizabeth (who went by "Liz" until she graduated from college) even opened the door to have Russ say, « Hi, Its's Liz right? » How akward she felt not remembering that she'd ever met him.

 

From that point on, whenever she saw him, she made a big deal about saying, « Hi RUSS. » She piqued his interest and after having been home about a year, he decided he would ask her out. By this time however, she wasn't in the same ward as his friend, so he had to work hard to find her number. After making several phone calls, he did call and ask her out. They spent their first date with a group, in a tent the boys had set up in their living room, watching the movie Rudy. Every year on the anniversary of that date, they re-enact the same date. Now they include their kids it! What a great family tradition.

 

Elizabeth and Russ started dating in January 2002 and were married in July, right after she graduated. They then put off Russ's final year of film school and moved to California where Elizabeth went to work for a large firm in California. The ward in California was so glad to have them. During that year, they served in 8 different callings. Their callings included, stake publicity committee, primary teachers, writing and directing the ward road show, pianist for the choir and primary and activities committee.

 

After a year the Lassons came home so Russ could finish his last year of film school at BYU. During that time they moved to Draper. After graduating Russ landed a job in Provo and they built a home in Lehi. They loved living in Lehi and lived there for 8 years. Elizabeth said she never really cared about moving back to Davis County, but Russ felt drawn to come live up here and Elizabeth was commuting up here about once a week to spend time with her family.

Finally, they decided to make a big jump and rent their Lehi home while they house sat in Cottonwood Heights for Russ's parents who were serving a mission. During that time, they started researching where they would like to move in Davis County. They realized the best schools in the district were in Kaysville, so they started looking at houses to build in the city.

 

They put money on a few different lots before they actually found Woodside. So after prayer and visiting the temple, they felt sure this was where they were supposed to be. They put the money down and the rest is history.

 

Elizabeth and Russ have two beautiful children, a boy named Davis and a darling daughter named Callie, named after Russ's grandmother. In her spare time Elizabeth loves to cook and bake. She also loves playing with her children. She works a few hours per night preparing taxes during tax season. The most recent hobby she has added is doing family history. She still loves music. She is serving as the nursery music leader and loves singing each week with the adorable kids in nursery!

 

What a great addition Elizabeth brings with so many talents. We are lucky for the contribution she brings to our ward.

 

Meet Sarah Adams

   

  Sarah had a full childhood being raised with a brother, sister and a wide range of outdoor activities.  Days were filled with riding horses, shearing sheep, playing on their ranch, attending rodeos to surfing, spending time at their beach house or perfecting her game of golf.  In junior and senior high school, because golf wasn't a huge sport for girls (yet), Sarah was on the men's golf team and competed in tournaments all over.  

     Sarah grew up in the small town of Clovis, CA, later moved to Fresno, where she attended Fresno State University.  While playing golf for Fresno State, Sarah was recruited and received a full ride scholarship to Weber State University.  While on a blind date, she met her husband John.  Now married 13 years, Sarah and John have 3 cute children: Steven (age 10), Stacy (age 9) and Katie (age 6).  Even though Sarah misses the ocean, she loves raising her children in Kaysville, where we have a little bit of country and some city living too.

     Life is busy for Sarah (running kids around, attending soccer games and playing golf).  One of their family's favorite things to do is riding horses and spending time at John's family ranch in Heber (something Sarah and John had in common growing up).  Now that Katie is in full day school (1st grade), Sarah is considering teaching golf lessons again.

     If you have a chance to meet Sarah, she's a fun person to get to know.

Mindianne Toomb

 

 

Mindianne Toomb was born in Salt Lake City. She is the oldest of four children. All of the children in her family were spaced four or five years apart, so that left her with many responsibilities in helping her mother. In fact, when she was babysitting age her mother told the women in the ward to not ask her to babysit, that Mindianne was her babysitter. She said being the oldest helped her grow up fast and learn to take on responsibility. It really helped her become the person she is today.

 

After her father completed his OBGYN residency in California, the family moved up to Bountiful into the Val Verda area. She lived in the same house with her parents until she was off to college.

Mindianne attended Woods Cross High School and was in the band. One aspect of the band she really enjoyed was being part of a group and having fun with friends she made in that group. She said they took very fun trips and competed against schools in California, Seattle, and Canada, and really made great memories doing so.

 

She played the clarinet in Jr. High, High School, and at the University of Utah.  She also played the saxophone in the Jazz Band in the 9^th grade. Mindianne's favorite thing about being in band was playing the music and the way it felt to play beautiful pieces of music. She just loves music and she also plays the piano.

 

After graduating from high school, Mindianne moved up to the dorms and went to the U of U on scholarship to play in the marching band. This was a great experience to be in the marching band and play in front of hundreds of fans. The Utah Marching band was able to perform in the half time show at a San Diego Chargers game, which was a once in a lifetime experience.  She also played with the Pep band at the WAC tournament in Las Vegas when the basketball team competed there. She said she feels like she was very fortunate because she didn't live at home and commute to school. A friend from High School and she both moved into the dorms their first year and their second year they moved to a duplex in Sugar House where they lived for the next three years. This gave her a real going off to college experience. She was living on her own, making choices, making new friends and growing up.

 

One funny story she shared with me was after she moved out, a friend of hers wanted her to come work with her at Aerosoles in Trolley Square. She thought that sounded fun so she got the job and decided she would ride the bus to work. She thought for sure she could handle the bus. Well, she got on the bus, but the ride seemed to be taking a bit longer than anticipated and the landscape was looking a bit unfamiliar. She realized she wasn't downtown and pretty soon, no one was left on the bus but her and little 5^th grade boy. She tentatively asked the bus driver if he was going to turn around soon and go back. He told her, no this was his last run of the day and he would be going home so she asked him to drop her off at a nearby Baskin Robbins. It just so happened that Baskin Robins was located on 23^rd East and Murray Holladay Road (in Holladay about 20 minutes from downtown).

This was before cell phones, but her mom had always told her to keep some change in her backpack in case she needed to make an emergency phone call. So once at the Baskin Robbins, she called her manager who came and picked her up, laughing the whole way. She went on to enjoy successful employment for their company.  She quickly learned how the bus system worked after that. ;)

 

Mindianne's dream was to become a nurse but the competition at the U was intense and frustrating at times because of the competition amongst the students. After her second year at the “U,” she took a break from school and went to work for her dad as his medical assistant. She loved this job and worked for him for seven years.

 

Mindianne met her husband Zack at a University of Utah football game through a mutual friend. (Go Utes!!) It was the following March and after a trip to Oceanside, California, before they started dating.

After dating about a year, they were married and moved back to the ward Mindianne lived in, in Bountiful. While living there they fixed up the house and then sold it, and then bought another house down the street in the same ward. They lived in that neighborhood for 11 years before moving to Kaysville.

 

The decision to move to Kaysville was a very difficult one for Mindianne.  She loved where they were living, but there weren’t a lot of children for her girls to play with.  She knew that Heavenly Father would help her and Zack see where they needed to be and would be led there.  They put their house up for sale, had an offer two days later, and started looking for homes.  They made their way to Kaysville and while visiting the model home one night, met the Butterfields.  Meeting Reini was one of the deciding factors in why they chose to move here.  Reini’s nursing background deals with similar medical issues that their oldest daughter has.  Mindianne felt at peace after meeting her and knew this is where they should be. They moved in and have loved being here. 

 

Mindianne was recently released as the Primary President, a calling she dearly loved. She loved being with the kids, but is also excited for the opportunity to attend Relief Society again. She may have thought she was moving here for support but Mindianne is one of the most positive and supportive people I have ever met. What a joy she is.