Holly Tholl

Holly Tholl

Holly was born in American Fork, Utah. She only moved once while she was growing up, the tremendous distance of 100 feet to across the street when she was 3. She was the youngest child of 6 kids. She grew up in a very peaceful and loving home. Her parents were calm and very patient with each other and the children. They are all very close today and all still live in Utah.

While Holly was young, she took violin lessons for a couple of years and piano lessons off and on until she was about 11. She also started ballet lessons at the age of 7. As her teenage years came on, she realized she loved ballet, but to be involved there was really only time for ballet so violin and piano took a back seat.

Holly danced ballet every day. Her teacher told her, “If you miss dancing one day, you see a difference. If you miss dancing 2 days, I see a difference. If you miss dancing 3 days, the audience sees a difference.” So ballet became the focus through the rest of her growing up years. She went on to dance professionally for one year. She was fortunate though, even though she danced many of the hours after school, she had great friends that made sure she was invited and came to any social event the was held after ballet was done. They would meet up with her after football games and made sure she always knew where they were.

While growing up in American Fork there was another member of her ward that would become the focus of her life, Cory Tholl. Cory was just a year younger than Holly but he looked so much younger that she never paid attention to him or even realized he was in the ward. That combined with the fact that Holly rarely made it to mutual due to ballet. One Sunday however, Holly walked into church to look up at the priests blessing the sacrament and saw Cory. She thought, “Who is that?” She noticed he was very cute.

After that it seemed her group of friends would sometimes hang out with his group of friends and they started to get to know each other. They hung out as friends until Holly graduated and went off to live at BYU. Still Holly preferred his company to anyone she was meeting at BYU, so they still saw each other. She would come home or he would come up to campus. Cory, however, was dead set on not having a girlfriend before his mission. She still went along with him though because she really liked him. Finally he must have realized she probably wasn't going to still be around after his mission if he was just a friend. So he relented and they started to date up until he left on his mission to London, England.

Before attending BYU, Holly decided that dancing professionally was not conducive to her long term goals of being a wife and mother, so she stopped dancing. Her dad was a recently retired orthodontist, and she had spent some time working in his office and really liked the environment of a dental office. She decided that she wanted to be a dental hygienist. She would need to complete two years of prerequisites (which she did at BYU) and do exceptional to get into the program at UVU because it was extremely competitive. So that's what she did.

While attending BYU however, she had the amazing experience of doing a summer semester study abroad at the BYU Jerusalem Center in Israel. She said it was such an incredible experience and one she could never duplicate at another time in her life. She lived in the Jerusalem Center on the Mount of Olives. She studied the Old and New Testament and Near Eastern history all day and went on field trips to the different sites. With the studying fresh in her head, the Holy Land opened up and became so real to her. They also studied the 3 different religions in the area, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. They even had instructors from all three faiths teaching them. Holly cherishes this experience as one of the most valuable of her life.

After completing 2 years at BYU, Holly started her first of two years in the dental hygiene program at UVU. When she had one more year to go, she looked back at her BYU transcripts and realized she was only one year away from having a BYU bachelor’s degree in Community Health as well. So she pulled up her boot straps and while staying in the dental hygiene program, re-enrolled at BYU, taking a full course load from both schools (26 credits per semester). During this year, Cory came home from his mission and they were married 4 months later. Cory enrolled at BYU and they overlapped only one semester. Holly’s last was Cory’s first. Cory went on to get an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and two master’s degrees, an MBA and Masters in Mechanical Engineering. Through their years in school, they were able to have summer internships and live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Hillsboro, Oregon.

After Holly graduated, she worked full time for two years as a dental hygienist, went to part time after their first child Isaac was born, and then when their second child London came along they decided it was time for her to stay home. So she quit and has had the great privilege of being a stay-at-home mom ever since.

In 2006 Cory graduated and started working for a product development company in Provo. He worked there for 1 year and then did a year of free-lance on his own. He then took a new job with a company in Ogden. Living in Pleasant Grove created quite a commute for Cory each day, especially since he was teaching a class at BYU to boot. So in 2010, they came to our neighborhood in Kaysville and built their home on Equestrian Parkway to get closer to work. In 2012, Cory was made the president of the company and he recently moved his work location to Centerville.

Holly and Cory now have 5 beautiful children. They love spending time together and Holly especially loves boating and waterskiing. In fact, she loves it so much they planned having their children in the fall because that would give Holly the maximum opportunity to water ski (you probably guessed it, she water-skied while pregnant). They also love hiking and camping.

Her most recent obsession is doing family history work. She became addicted last fall when our ward started its big push to find family names. Now she can't get enough of it and has been very instrumental in helping many in this ward find and take names to the temple.

I asked Holly what's the best advice she would give someone with the things she's learned in life. She says the advice she always gives people is, “Don't take anyone's advice. Do what feels right for you.” She also says she would tell people, “Everybody has something to offer. Getting to know people stops judgment.”

Holly is one of the most approachable people I have ever met. She is happy and I truly believe she cannot be offended. If you haven't had the chance to get to know her, I recommend seeking her out.

Nanny Bayles

 Nanny was born in Germany, in a big family with 4 boys and 4 girls.  She lived there until

 she was 3, while her dad served as mission president, in the Frankfurt, Germany mission.

 They moved back to Bountiful Utah, where Nanny graduated from Viewmont High.  Her family loved road trips, camping and outdoor activities.  She also grew up playing the cello and all

 kinds of dance.  While in high school, Nanny was on the drill team and played cello in the

orchestra. 

 After graduation, Nanny majored in dance performance with an emphasis in modern

dance at BYU Provo.  Through some mutual friends, Nanny was introduced to Bryan (her future husband).  While just friends, she was very impressed with Bryan and mentioned to her girlfriend
that if she didn't marry Bryan Bayles she would have to marry someone just like him. When Bryan came home from his mission, he questioned where Nanny was.  He found out that she was on her mission in Ecuador, he tracked down her address and began writing her.  When she came home,

they started dating, had a short engagement and were married. 
     

 Nanny and Bryan started there marriage off with a life changing experience, that has given her strength and guidance in raising her small children.  While heading off on their honeymoon, they ended up in the hospital from a serious car accident, that only left them with scrapes and bruises.

She feels very blessed to be here, raising her family and for the opportunity to be a mother. Married now 11 years, they have 4 children: Edith-9, Ila-6, Pearl-4, Jens-18 months, with another little one on way, due on December 22nd.

Nanny loves the outdoors and is very active.  She finished her first marathon last summer.  She has completed the "little red riding hood," 100 mile bike ride, 4 times and has come home 3 of those times to find that she was pregnant!!

This cute family keeps themselves active and busy with the kids playing soccer and having piano and dance lessons.  They also get ski passes every year.  Nanny works two days a week at "Creative Arts Academy," in bountiful (dance for ages 3-18).

On Sundays, Nanny is always busy with a church calling, she now teaches sunday school to the 16 and 17 year olds.

What a fun family and a great lady.  If you don't already know Nanny, she is a fun person to talk with.   

Cynthia Page

Cynthia was born in Salt Lake City at LDS hospital. She spent her growing up years living all over the Western side of Greater Salt Lake area. She said her family ended up moving about once a year the whole time she was growing up.

Cynthia’s childhood was filled with lots of memories of playing. She would come home from school and go play with her friends. On the weekends, her parents would load her and her 3 siblings up in the car. They would go up to the mountains for breakfast or lunch. Then they would spend the entire day wandering around the mountain. She loved this time. They enjoyed spending time together as a family and in fact they are still very close today. They all live on the Wasatch front and usually get together at least once a month.

Once Cynthia was in Jr. High, although her family still moved, they made sure to stay within the same school boundaries. So for Jr. High she attended Elk Ridge Jr. High in South Jordan and Copper Hills High School in West Jordan.

Because her family wasn't very wealthy, Cynthia had to work to provide her own clothes, entertainment, vehicles and personal needs. This was a great blessing in her life and helped her learn important life lessons in finances and money management. As soon as she was old enough, she always worked. She would go to school all day, come home, go to work, then come home again and do homework. She still however, managed to go to most of the school dances.

Working also helped her gain confidence in herself that she could do hard things. Her first year in High School she babysat for a family. Then her family moved in a new home. The lady who they were buying the home from was quitting her job as a receptionist at a physical therapy office. When Cynthia heard this woman was quitting she thought to herself, « I bet I could do that job. » She applied and got the job. She worked there the next two years of high school.

While she was a junior she took a ceramics class. She walked in and noticed a boy named Nathan Page. Actually she thought he was kind of hard to miss, he was a loud mouth and drew a lot of attention to himself. Cynthia is naturally a bit quiet and shy so she tried to find a place to sit away from him, but the only seat available was right behind his chair, so reluctantly she sat there. It seemed like the whole first month he just kept turning around to her and asking her all kinds of questions about the class. He even asked her if she would help him study for an upcoming test. She had a soft heart, so she agreed to help him.

When he came to study for the test. They started generally talking before diving into the material, to break the ice, but before they knew it a whole hour had gone by and they hadn't talked about the test at all. Still Cynthia had a boyfriend so Nathan didn't ask her out. Nathan did however notice she and her boyfriend were having troubles, so he observantly waited. As soon as he heard they had broken up, he swooped in and asked her out. It wasn't long after that he asked her to be his girlfriend.

They dated through the rest of their junior year and were married the next year after both of them had graduated early. In fact, they got married the day of Prom. It was very fun because all of their friends came to the wedding and reception dressed in their prom outfits. It is a great memory for them.

After graduation, Nathan joined the Marines. After only 8 months of marriage, he headed to boot camp and Cynthia went home to live with her parents. While he was gone, she found out she was pregnant. She wrote Nathan right away, but due to a barracks relocation, Nathan wasn't getting her letters. But a friend of his from high school was getting letters. Someone wrote to the friend and told him about the pregnancy and he congratulated Nathan. Cynthia laughs that this is the way he found out.

Nathan received his travel orders after graduating in February to Okinawa Japan. He was also informed that Cynthia couldn't travel with him. She stayed home with her parents and he left. They wouldn't be reunited again until their first son, Kamin, was 10 month old.

When Nathan returned, he was stationed in Quantico Virginia. He was then deployed to the Republic of Georgia in Southeast Asia; so again, Cynthia packed up and went home to live with her family. Upon returning, after a lot of careful consideration, they made the decision that it was time for Nathan to get out of the military. He applied for a job in California and when their second son, Rylie, was 3 weeks old, they moved to Temecula CA, just north of San Diego.

For this job, Nathan was flying and traveling all over the world. Cynthia was home alone a lot with the kids, so for the third time, she packed up and moved back home with her parents. The traveling was becoming too much so Cynthia and Nathan decided a new job would be a better fit in order to spend more time together. So Nathan took a new job and they moved to Poway CA again just outside of San Diego.

They lived there 3 years, and their 3^rd son Asher joined their family. Also Nathan was able to graduate from College. They however, were concerned about the environment Southern California was for their growing boys. The schools didn't seem that great and the influence from the kids in the neighborhood weren't fabulous. So Nathan took a job transfer in the company back to Utah. Their home sold very quickly but the day they closed on their home, they found out the job had gone south, Nathan would have to continue with his job in California without the family. They looked at each other and decided they still wanted to move to Utah, so for the final time, Cynthia took the kids and went back home, while Nathan stayed in California working and applying for jobs in Utah. Eventually he landed a job with BAE Systems at Hill AFB. As soon as he started working there, he and Cynthia put a down payment down on their lot.

With their future looking bright here in Utah, Cynthia's parents now decided to move in with them. With two capable mom's available, it seemed silly for everyone to stay home, so Cynthia took a job at BAE Systems (The same company Nathan works for) and has worked there for almost a year.

Through all of these experiences I asked Cynthia what piece of wisdom she has gained. She said, “Enjoy every moment of your life, even the hard parts. The hard parts make us who we are. In the end it all works out for the best.”

I think Cynthia is an amazing woman. Her support and behind the scenes caretaking has made it possible for her family to accomplish and go through great and hard things. It is clear she is deeply devoted to her family. She is pleasant and loving and very easy to talk to. I hope you will all take the opportunity to get to know her and the rest of the Page family.

Tiffany Flanders

Tiffany is the oldest of 3 brothers.  She was born in Utah but grew up in Indiana and moved 6 times within the same ward!  She loves gymnastics and even competed for 3 years. Tiffany also loved riding horses, something she did almost on a daily basis.  As a teenager, her family moved back to Utah and lived with family.
As a Sophomore, attending Woods Cross High School, Tiffany meet Travis (her future husband).
They started dating one month later and everyone knew they had something special together. Throughout Tiffany's high school years, her family moved to AZ for a while then CA.  Even while states away, Tiffany and Travis stayed in close contact thru letters, phone calls and week long visits.  She wrote faithfully while Travis served his mission.  Their families say that life doesn't work for them when they are apart, so Tiffany and Travis were married 6 months after he returned home from his mission.  Tiffany says, "we are two people who are complete opposites that perfectly compliment each other."  When they were first married, Tiffany and Travis moved to Anchorage, AK so Travis could pursue his degree in Air Traffic Control at the University of Alaska. While there Tiffany worked full time at the University, while taking some elementary education classes.  Now married 10 years they have 3 young children McKinley-6, Taytum-4, Evelyn-1.
Tiffany coached gymnastics for 4 years, when Mckinley and Taytum were younger.  Now she loves working as a reading aide, at South Weber Elementary, part time.  Between work and the children, she finds time to write and send weekly family e-mails to friends and family.  Tiffany loves to write and would like to write a story about her children someday.  She would also like to continue and finish her elementary education degree, and become a elementary school teacher.  Her and her family are huge University of Utah Football fans and love to attend the Utah women's gymnastics meets together.  This busy lady has a lot going on, so if you can catch her, she is fun to get to know!

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.