Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Life lessons: The weird, happy and organized world of a really big family

Derrico family lead

L.E. Baskow

Evonne Derrico shows off her quintuplets as they await their eye doctor appointments. “You’ve won 18 years of responsibility,” she jokes to her husband. “Two boys and three girls.”

No one much notices when Evonne Derrico carries a car seat into the hospital lobby. She leaves the sleeping baby with her mother-in-law and zips back to the valet.

A minute later, she arrives with a second car seat. Then a third.

Three medical salesmen in the lobby are now watching. “They’re still coming?” one asks. The babies’ grandmother nods.

“Holy moly!” another salesman exclaims as Evonne enters with a fourth car seat.

In this unfolding spectacle that has become the Derrico family’s daily life, the grand finale is about to occur. Evonne’s husband, Deon, walks through the sliding-glass doors with their fifth baby.

The three shell-shocked businessmen — all fathers themselves — give Deon a standing ovation, then offer to help carry the quintuplets upstairs.

“How are you guys standing up?” one says.

And they don’t know the half of it. Deon and Evonne also have an 8-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son and 2-year-old twin boys.

That’s enough kids to field a baseball team.

•••

An oversized teddy bear sits in the corner of a crib like a guard. This is his spot in the upstairs bonus room, where everything has a place.

Boxes of donated diapers take up a corner of the cheery, yellow room. Next to the mountain of Pampers is a twin bed and, on the other side, a sofa. Along another wall: a flat-screen television, cubicles for toy and book storage, and a baby-changing station.

HOW TO BRING ORDER TO A BUSY HOME

The Derricos run their home like a well-oiled machine, adjusting to every bend in the road. With nine children, half of whom aren’t even walking, it’s an impressive feat. So what’s the secret to Evonne and Deon’s domestic success? A lot of it comes down to common sense. Here are a few of Evonne’s tips:

• Never procrastinate: If you don’t take care of things the minute they happen, the to-do list will build until it spirals out of control. Fold laundry when the dryer beeps. Cut coupons when they arrive. Wash the dish as soon as it becomes dirty.

• Label everything: Labels keep items organized and in place. Evonne labels everything from baskets containing baby products to plastic bags holding snacks for each child. “Everything in life has its own place,” she explains. “You don’t park your car in your living room.”

• Enlist the kids’ help: Don’t waste time doing everything for your children. Give them age-appropriate responsibilities. For instance, Evonne’s 8-year-old daughter chooses her own clothes and packs her own book bag.

• Schedule time for yourself: Date nights don’t have to be elaborate to break up the monotony of the week. Evonne and Deon rarely have quiet moments in their house, so they relish even a single hour or two after the children fall asleep. Evonne records movies on their DVR so they have an option all the time. Lighting a candle provides the perfect ambiance for conversation and relaxation.

Peek into the cabinet under the changing table, and you’ll find primary-colored plastic baskets with marker labels, such as “girls and boys sleepers,” “bibs” and “onesies.” Even the quints’ clothing exudes order, dangling wrinkle-free from tiny hangers on either side of the crib.

Welcome to the nerve center of the Derrico home. In this all-purpose room, form breeds function.

“I can’t rest with clutter,” Evonne, 34, says. And, in this household, rest is a rare commodity.

There’s even order in the naming of their five — make that nine — children: All the Derrico kids’ names begin with D. Their first daughter is Darian. Next came Derrick, followed by twins Dallas and Denver. And, on Sept. 6, the five youngest arrived: boys Deniko and Dariz and girls Daician, Deonee and Daiten.

The children sleep in two upstairs bedrooms, including one with three miniature cribs, and the master bedroom, leaving the bonus room for Evonne and Deon’s occasional moments of quiet time at night. But don’t let your imagination run too wild: Their alone time lately consists of recorded TV shows and maybe champagne glasses filled with grape juice.

But they can’t relax if something is out of place. On this night, Deon’s Bluetooth headset is missing.

A frantic, five-minute search ends with him finding it on top of the crib in the bonus room.

“Here we go!” he says, exhaling. “Oh, God, thank you.”

•••

The couple’s prenatal appointment a year ago wasn’t their first rodeo.

With four happy children at home, Evonne and Deon drove to the doctor’s office as relaxed as could be, simply hoping to hear a healthy heartbeat. Baby No. 5, they thought. They never entertained the possibility they would be blessed with twins twice, despite a history of multiples in their families.

Boy, were they in for a surprise.

Soon after beginning an ultrasound, the doctor uttered unexpected words:

“Oh, you guys have four babies.”

And then he continued.

“Baby A heartbeat looks good.”

“Baby B heartbeat looks good.”

Evonne couldn’t see the ultrasound monitor. Deon, now 43, responded first.

“Four?” he gasped.

“Yes,” the doctor replied. “You guys are pregnant with quadruplets.”

The doctor presumably continued his rundown of the babies’ heartbeats; the parents don’t remember much about what happened after the announcement.

Feelings of awe, honor and fear had overwhelmed the couple like a giant wave. And they were struck by anxiety: Would the babies make it?

Two days later, Evonne started spotting blood. She had suffered four miscarriages during their marriage, so it must be happening again, she thought.

The couple got in the car and readied themselves for somber news.

Their doctor didn’t see any problems with babies A, B, C or D, but he did notice something — or, more accurately, someone — else.

“You guys have a fifth baby in here,” the doctor said calmly.

One-hundred pound Evonne was carrying quintuplets! Their conception occurred naturally, without the aid of fertility drugs.

It was their dream come true, albeit in a very extreme manner.

The couple had met on the dance floor of a Detroit nightclub 12 years ago, a night when Evonne’s friend persuaded her to skip Bible study for an evening out. The Kingstree, S.C. (population: 3,328) native recently had moved to the Motor City for her job as a flight attendant. Deon grew up there.

On their first date a couple of weeks later, they discussed having kids. Lots of them. The exact number, they would leave up to God. And God showed a divine sense of adventure, first blessing them with four children before the Sept. 6 show-stopper that capped 32 weeks and two days of pregnancy.

The Derrico Family

Evonne Derrico tends to her infant quintuplets as they sleep Monday, Nov. 22, 2013. Launch slideshow »

At a Mesa, Ariz., hospital that specializes in high-risk pregnancies, Evonne gave birth, by Caesarean section, to the quintuplets, who entered the world in this order: Deniko (boy), Dariz (boy), Deonee (girl), Daician (girl) and Daiten (girl).

They ranged in weight from 1 pound, 14 ounces, to 2 pounds, 15 ounces. Deon gushed to reporters during telephone interviews.

“We are all doing great,” he said. “Excited is an understatement.”

His elation masked underlying worries that come with suddenly being responsible for nine young lives. The couple’s five-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot home in Las Vegas once seemed spacious, but would it feel cramped two months or two years from now? And how do you go anywhere with nine children, eight of whom require car seats? His job as a field property manager paid the bills, but that was before his family doubled in size. His job’s flexible schedule would suit his current situation, but would it be enough in the long run?

And then there was this: Loving these nine, beautiful children wouldn’t be a problem, but how would two parents be able to give them the individual attention they deserve — and still have time for their own relationship?

Clinging to his faith seemed like the only possible solution.

“This has humbled me,” Deon said in a phone interview from the hospital. “I feel very honored that God chose us.”

•••

Big-sister Darian tiptoes into the nursery shortly after 7:30 a.m. to check on four fussy infants, now 3 months old, wriggling in two cribs. Their pacifiers have fallen out of their mouths.

Evonne, is giving the fifth baby a sponge bath in the bathroom. Dad is in the master bedroom, dressing the older boys.

As their big sister reaches into one crib to fix the problem, the whimpers intensify in the other crib. Darian throws her hands in the air and, in the best way she knows how, tries to explain the predicament to her tiny siblings:

“I am not an octopus!”

Today, time management is crucial. The quints have an eye doctor appointment 45 minutes away. All is well, though. Evonne is perfecting her assembly-line routine with the quintuplets: Sponge-bath each baby in the bathroom. Head to bonus room for lotion, clean diaper and clothing. Line the fresh-smelling infants in a large crib.

“Three down, two to go,” Evonne says.

She works quickly but tries to savor each moment. For the same reason, she tried to breast-feed each baby several times a week, in addition to bottles of formula, for their first three months.

She’s all about time-savers, such as preparing bottles and packing a bulging diaper bag at night. With this many children, she knows that disorder spells disaster.

But all the organization in the world can’t avert natural disasters — in this case, spit up.

Five minutes before their scheduled departure, Daiten’s morning formula makes a reappearance, spoiling her outfit. Dad scoops her up and efficiently deals with it.

Now secure in their car seats, the quints, with their diapers and bottles, are loaded into a Chrysler minivan and Saturn Aura. The family’s part-time baby-sitter — or “parent helper” as they prefer to call her — is watching the boys, and Darian is at school.

In the doctor’s waiting room, Deon and Evonne, struck by a moment of surreality, shake their heads and laugh. Set out in front of them in their car seats, these five sleeping infants are theirs, all theirs, and growing by the day. They have fledgling personalities, distinct physical traits and a lifetime of possibilities ahead of them, just like their four older siblings.

Imitating a “Price is Right” host, Evonne sweeps her outstretched hand over the car seats. “You’ve won 18 years of responsibility,” she says to her husband. “Two boys and three girls.”

Their ophthalmologist, Dr. Bruce Snyder, would deliver good news during the appointment. The quintuplets’ retinal blood vessels, which were immature at birth, are now 75 percent developed.

The quints see Snyder, along with a cardiologist, pulmonologist and pediatrician, on a regular basis to ensure their fragile bodies are developing properly. Evonne and Deon carted their infants to a doctor almost once a week in the beginning, gobbling up entire days if you calculate prep time, transportation and five individual checkups.

Their continued growth will mean less frequent doctor visits.

Just shy of turning 3 months old, Dariz leads in size, weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces.

•••

Multiple sleep-deprived months have taught Deon and Evonne a lot about themselves.

For starters, they’ve learned to never leave the house without checking their feet. In the hustle and bustle of preparing nine children for an excursion, Evonne once forgot her shoes. Deon can’t mock her; he has forgotten to close the garage door; once, they got into an elevator and just stood there, each forgetting to press a button.

These frenzy-induced lapses make their two-story home all the more puzzling. There are no piles of laundry, stacks of dirty dishes, scattered mail or misplaced toys. Their kitchen counters gleam. Their carpets show vacuum lines. Even their Christmas tree, which they set up before Thanksgiving, glitters in the spotless living room in early December.

Their explanation is simple: Stay on top of everything, lest something gets away from them. The use-a-dish, wash-a-dish mentality prevents the household from sliding into complete and utter disorder.

“This is like a business,” Evonne explains. “We work hard at it together. It’s not for people who don’t know what they’re doing.”

They learned early in life. As a young adult, Deon took care of his two nephews, giving him his first taste of being a father figure. Being a mother comes naturally to Evonne, whose sunny personality wards off hints of stress, but this isn’t her first time juggling multiple little ones. She used to provide day care for others.

When the going gets tough, their secret weapon is a hugging, feisty woman named Marian Derrico — Deon’s mother, who lives just a few miles away. “GeGe” helps shuttle Darian to school, play with the boys and feed the babies.

•••

Family members have gathered to celebrate Darian’s eighth birthday. Deon is manning the stove, cooking his signature turkey burgers. Two babies, nestled in electric cradles, sleep through the lively banter and music.

Darian, dressed in pink argyle stockings with a khaki jumper, smiles broadly as she opens presents — a purple sweater dress from Gege, a puzzle from the baby-sitter and more clothing and socks from her parents. After unwrapping her gifts at the kitchen table, Darian giddily bounces into the family room to dance with her little brothers.

Minutes later, Deon emerges from the hallway with one more surprise — a pink Hello Kitty bicycle, for the big sister who has proven so giving and helpful. Darian squeals with excitement, jumps into his arms and cries.

“We love you, baby,” Deon says. “We love you so much.”

The shiny bike has good vibes emanating from it. When Deon went shopping at Toys R Us, employees recognized him from newscasts about the quintuplets’ birth and voluntarily cut the bike’s cost in half.

Before fawning over her new ride, Darian runs to the kitchen and writes a note. It’s for her parents and it says, “I love Mommy and Poppy.”

•••

There are tricks to raising twins and quintuplets:

• Use disposable liners for bottles to cut down on wash time.

• Write down each child’s basic information before seeing the doctor.

• Ask for a “multiples” discount at certain stores.

Evonne estimates the latter tip can save her as much as 20 percent when clothes shopping. But that assumes she can find clothing. Try shopping for five 3-month-olds who weigh the amount of newborns.

As Evonne browses a children’s clothing store in Meadows Mall, she spots two striped knit caps embellished with flowers — perfect for Daiten, Deonee and Daician. But she can’t find a third. Nor can she find a third gray shirt and legging outfit.

Bummed but undeterred, Evonne wanders to another store, where she encounters the same problem. Feeling defeated, she rejoins Deon who is watching Derrick, Denver and Dallas frolic in the mall’s play area.

Evonne gazes at the play structure captivating her boys. “How do I get this in my house?” she asks, half serious.

Forty minutes into their Christmas shopping trip, they haven’t bought a single item. But the afternoon isn’t lost. With GeGe at home with the baby-sitter watching the quints, and Darian, a second-grader, at school, today is undivided time with their older boys.

So all five squeeze into a miniature train car for a ride aboard the Ladybug Express — singing “choo-choo” all the way — and then pay a visit to Old Saint Nick.

“Hi Santa!” Derrick, 3, says with high-pitched enthusiasm, as he crawls onto the bearded man’s left leg. His younger brothers, 2-year-olds Dallas and Denver, require encouragement.

“You’re next,” Santa tells Dallas, pointing to his other leg. “Right here.”

“And you’re right here,” he tells Denver, the shyest of them all.

A third of the Derrico siblings have filled Santa’s lap.

•••

The floor of the tiny examination room might as well be a chess board. Squeezing five car seats and four adults into the enclosed space is quite the game. Today the quints will get shots during their 4-month-old checkup with the family’s pediatrician, Dr. Arpine Tacvorian.

On hand to help is Jacqueline Castillo, founder and president of the nonprofit Legacy Ladies, which has “adopted” the Derrico family. She’s spending the day with the family to get know them and understand their needs better. It couldn’t be more perfect timing.

Every baby needs to be undressed before Tacvorian can conduct the checkup, so it’s a group effort, with lots of wriggling, unsnapping of buttons and rocking of anxious babies.

Deniko — the oldest and, therefore, the first in line — rests in Deon’s arms as Tacvorian begins the standard wellness questions:

Does he try to roll?

Does he put weight on his feet?

Does he laugh?

Does he turn if he hears voices?

Satisfied with his parents’ answers, she checks the infant and then moves on to the next baby. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth.

And then the moment they’ve been dreading arrives: three shots to each baby’s little legs. Shrieks and sobs ensue, causing Deon’s face to wrinkle in sympathy.

“I could fight 100 bears, but I can’t watch them cry,” he says.

Five bottles and 45 minutes later, the group leaves the examination room. Total time spent at the doctor’s office: two hours.

Exhausted, they stop at Olive Garden for a late lunch and, like at the hospital lobby, their entrance draws stares and questions. This has become their new normal — and, most often, they embrace it. The family has appeared on the “Today” show and “The View,” and they could make another appearance later this year. Just in case, Evonne has finished making seating arrangements for their flight.

It was another task on her long to-do list of planning menus days in advance, scheduling trips to the store, preparing “learning time” plans for her older boys — and then executing it all. The nine children really aren’t this couple’s source of stress.

“That chaos is orchestrating schedules,” she says.

Every now and then, something falls to the wayside, such as potty training. Evonne winces at the thought of her 2-year-old twins still wearing diapers. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a small sacrifice, aside from parental bragging rights.

The family’s calm collectedness and adherence to order have allowed the couple to catch their breath and enjoy fleeting moments of quiet. Their household functionality also has caught the attention of reality TV producers.

Deon has been fielding a stream of phone calls as he, with the help of lawyers, negotiates the possible reality TV deal. If it happens, they will enforce one rule: No concocted drama.

The household has enough natural drama in it, Deon explains. Bickering isn’t their style. Neither is being unruly or disrespectful. When Evonne prays at night, she asks God to keep her humble.

Inviting the world into their home wasn’t a tough decision, though. It all came down to this:

“I have nine babies who have to get educated and eat healthy,” Deon says.

They spend $160 on formula alone every four or five days. Donations of goods and money have helped offset some of the family’s immediate financial burdens, but they also have 18 more years to provide for their family of 11.

That’s where Castillo hopes her California-based nonprofit can help, at least for a while. When Castillo saw the Derricos profiled on television shortly after the quints’ birth, she immediately knew they would be the perfect family to support in 2014.

“It’s an environment that can be chaotic if you allow it to be,” she says, describing the large family. “But with them, the positive spirit they have — they are able to calm the waters.”

In October, Castillo offered to give the Derricos a “hand up,” not a handout. What that entails will be unveiled this month during Legacy Ladies’ annual Torch Awards at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The generosity stuns Deon and Evonne.

•••

The Derricos create a human traffic jam in a narrow, back hallway leading to Victory Missionary Baptist Church’s sanctuary. They’re 15 minutes late to the service, but not to worry — church leaders saved two pews.

Evonne leads the way, ushering her large brood, plus several relatives, into their seats, as congregants sing, “My God is awesome. He can move mountains.”

The lively gospel music masks any noise the Derricos make as adults unstrap and hold babies, put car seats aside and situate the children. For a moment, Evonne and Deon can sit and smile. Their children — the four girls wearing white satin dresses and the five boys clad in matching gray pinstriped trousers and vests — absorb the church scene without making a peep.

But shortly after they settle in, the minister invites the family to the front of the sanctuary. Today is the nine children’s dedication into the congregation.

Everyone files out of the pews except for 2-year-old Denver, whose brown eyes convey concern as soon as he notices his siblings no longer near him. Whoops. A relative slides back into the pew and gently grabs his little hand, averting any tears.

“We have the Derrico family,” the minister says, introducing them to the congregation. “A total of nine children.”

The faithful answer with a hearty “Amen!”

When he clarifies that “five of them are quintuplets,” clapping grows even louder. Despite the commotion, the quints and four older children don’t flinch. Maybe they’re accustomed to the attention by now — or they’re inheriting their parents’ peace.

The minister says it takes a village to raise children, words the adults holding or standing next to the Derrico children understand.

Then he begins his dedication prayer:

“Father, we consider this a blessing.

“We ask now that you bless this family.

“We ask you to bless this mother and father because they will teach them there is a God.”

As he speaks, soft organ music fills the sanctuary, and Deon sheds a tear.

After the service and the requisite hugs and handshakes, it’s time to pack up again. Deon and Evonne know the drill: They fasten their 5-month-olds back into car seats, cover them with blankets and head count their four older children.

These children, Deon and Evonne say, are their divine nine.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy