Yay for {Friday Favorites}!

I'm super pumped to share my Friday Favorites with you. I'm linking up with the beautiful...

Andrea from Momfessionals, 

Narci from Grace and Love Blog 

and Erika from A Little Bit of Everything blog 

Up First...

I just love Fall! I've grown to love the season more & more over the years. Just this past week I put up my fall wreath and planted some bright yellow mums in our planters in front of our house. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see those pretty bright flowers each time I leave or come home. And we carved our pumpkins. It was so much fun!

Here's my Troy boy trying to carve his pumpkin. He had the cutest face each time he would touch all the insides. He giggled and then looked a bit disgusted at his hands. :) When he was done he was happy to be cleaned up. 

Here are my men carving their pumpkins. Austin did not like pulling out the insides, either. Those 2 boys can get muddy muddy and touch slimy fish but they don't like the pumpkin guts. Funny boys!

Our finished pumpkins. Austin wanted a really scary one (his is the middle one). I did the best I could as far as scary goes ;). 

And how cool do they look? It's so much fun to light the pumpkin candles at night. 

So last Sunday we had a "Cousin Reunion." My sweet cousin, Laure'n, thought of getting us all together. I sure am happy she did, too! It was an absolute blast. These are only some of the cousins. And our spouses came as well as the kiddos, but they weren't in these bottom 2 photos. I have many good memories growing up with these cousins and it was awesome to see each other again. 

We went to eat at the Pizza Ranch in a reserved room and then went to a pumpkin patch. It was the best idea and I think we will need to have this be an annual thing. A favorite and anticipated get together it was!!

Silly poses ;)

And this beautiful lady is my cousin and I love her so much! 

Here are more of us cousins together!

Speaking of fall, this coffee creamer is so yummy! A definite morning favorite of mine! I put it in my coffee and then top it off with a giant swirl of whipped cream. So SO good! Who's counting calories or sugar anyways? ;)

And are these not the cutest n' sweetest little feet?! 

Stripes + Hearts + Sparkly shoes + Beautiful fall weather = 1 happy girl!

Happy Friday to you!!

Jamie :)

You can keep up with me on Instagram @ jamierossie

Homemade Pizza Sauce {your kids will love}: Packed with veggies!!

Last night was --> Pizza night at our house! 

I started making a "What's for dinner?" weekly menu on a white board. And I'm really liking it! Now that Austin is 6 years old, he asks me every day... "What's for dinner tonight, Mom?" So, I thought it was only appropriate to write out the menu. 

His appetite sure has increased! He's getting to be less of a picky eater. Praise God! 

Pizza night was suppose to be tonight but Austin wanted it last night so I was a #yesmom and obliged :). 

I was going to just buy some jarred pizza sauce at the store but then I thought it'd be fun (& healthy) to make my own. 

Here's what you'll need...

(This will make enough pizza sauce for 2 pizzas. Just half the amount if you just want enough for 1 pizza)

-15 oz can of Tomato Sauce ( I used Organic)

-3 oz of fresh baby Spinach ( I used Organic)

-4 long carrots ( I used Organic) peeled and cut up.

-2 cloves of garlic, grated

-1 Tbsp butter

-2 Tbsp Olive Oil (EVOO)

-1/4 cup water

-1/2 tsp of Paprika

-A dash of Salt + Pepper

Here are the veggies. I love to hide veggies in my meals. And I love when a meal already has them in it so I don't need to add a side of corn or a side salad. This pizza sauce is packed with carrots, spinach and tomatoes. Yum!

I started by steaming the spinach and carrots.

Once the spinach looks wilted like this, you know it's done. The carrots were not quite soft enough so I let them steam longer and took the spinach out.

Isn't it amazing how the spinach shrinks up so much?! 

Once the veggies were done steaming. I sauteed my garlic and butter together for just a few minutes until mixed well.

Then I put the carrots and spinach in the food processor with the garlic/butter mixture and the salt and pepper.

I mixed it up pretty good and then added the can of tomato sauce.

After the veggies mixed up, I added my paprika, EVOO and water.

Once it was done, it looked like this. It wasn't the reddish color I had imagined. And I knew that if Austin saw the color he would question if it was truly pizza sauce. I just told him it was homemade. :) It tastes delicious! If you wanted it more reddish in color I suppose you could add less spinach.

I spreaded it on my refrigerated pizza crust.

I added the mozzarella cheese and pepperoni's on half.

This particular dough had to be pre-baked for 10 minutes before the sauce and fixings. Then baked for another 10 minutes after the sauce and fixings were put on. 

This was the finished product. The sauce darkened up a bit. 

It was a winning recipe in my house. Healthy + delicious!

Enjoy! 

Jamie :)

The beauty of not worrying

We came back from Florida last Friday and we had an amazing time!  I'll be sharing more photos from our vacation in the future.... get ready for #pictureoverload ;)

 I wanted to share these photos first because I felt led to speak about worry. It is something every person deals with from time to time. 

Jesus says "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store  away in barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

 -Matthew 6:26-27

We went to the beach almost every day. It was so peaceful and beautiful with the breeze flowing past us, the sound of the waves crashing, seeing my kids enjoying themselves walking on the soft sand and looking out into the ocean. Breathtaking. 

The kids enjoyed the birds a lot. We had pretzels for a snack and the kids loved feeding the birds. My Dad even held up a pretzel and the birds would snatch it from his hold. They would gather around waiting for some more. Troy ended up dumping almost the whole bag out for them. He's generous ;).

It really made me think about :worry: seeing the birds without a care. They don't worry about tomorrow let alone their next meal. God cares for them. And HOW MUCH MORE does he care about His children? He loves us with an everlasting love. There is nothing we can do to make God love us anymore. Isn't that a powerful statement? Of course, we want to be obedient and Christ like but how encouraging to know that He loves us just as we are. We don't need to worry about tomorrow or the future. Trust in God and He will direct our path. 

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. " -Matthew 6:33-34

Jamie :)