Vegas family expands from 4 to 9 kids

The five new additions!

The Derrico team got a whole lot bigger last fall as the Vegas family added three girls and two boys – all under 3 pounds and all healthy –  bringing the Derrico kid roster to 9, what their parents call "Derricos Divine 9.".

By Terry Tang, Associated Press

A Las Vegas mother is resting after delivering a healthy set of quintuplets in a suburban Phoenix hospital, bringing five new additions to her family's already full house. The babies, born September 6th, join the Derrico's 7-year-old daughter, Darian, 3-year-old son, Derrick, and 1-year-old twin boys, Dallas and Denver.


Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician, and Daiten were being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit. Each infant weighed less than 3 pounds, but their father, Deon Derrico (duh-REE'-koh), said that all are healthy. For he and his wife "to be blessed with this type of gift is just magnificent," he said.
The infants were delivered at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, under the supervision of Dr. John Elliott, who specializes in multiple births.

Daddy Deon Derrico

Deon Derrico said the prospect of caring for such a large family occasionally causes him anxiety, but he says he's ready. "To go from four to nine, that's a level of preparation that requires you be a billionaire," Deon Derrico said. "But whatever has to be done to take care of my children, I'm going to do it." Derrico, 42, who works as a property manager for a real estate company, said friends have already volunteered to help babysit.

The family lives in a 2,900-square-foot, five-bedroom home in North Las Vegas. They plan to turn their home-theater room into a nursery. Deon Derrico said he needs to figure out what kind of vehicle the family should have; their minivan won't be big enough to move everyone around at once.

The couple initially thought they would be having quadruplets, but found a fifth baby in the womb on a later exam. Deon Derrico said the couple conceived without fertility drugs. But they have gone through four miscarriages, and Evonne Derrico had been prescribed hormones to help maintain the pregnancy to term, Deon Derrico said.

"God is good," he said. "He gave us the divine nine."

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