CASPER, Wyo. – As Pat Patik looked at his new baby girl through the nursery window, he couldn't help telling the nurse who stood next to him how cute his baby was.
The nurse replied, "The other one's just as cute."
As he figuratively picked his jaw off the floor, he realized his wife, Tammy, had not just given birth to one perfect little girl.
He now had two daughters.
"We didn't know until we were on the delivery table," Tammy Patik said about her now 28-year-old twin daughters, Heidi and Heather. "They didn't tell my husband right away. That was the fun part."
Pat Patik didn't know until about an hour and a half after his wife delivered them.
Luckily, Michael McKenna and Jerod Levin had much more warning about the twins their wives would be having. They had months to prepare.
McKenna and his wife Heidi had twin girls, Brooke and Brynn, four years ago.
Heather and Jerod Levin just welcomed their twin boy and girl Tuesday, bringing the Patik-family-twin count to three sets.
This year the Patik family's Thanksgiving will take place in hospital room full of pink and blue.
There are blue and pink flower arrangements, blankets, onesies and even blue and pink stuffed fireflies.
They will eat sometime between trips to the Wyoming Medical Center to bring turkey to the new parents and visit the newest additions to their family.
Emerson Paige is an entire pound bigger than her twin brother, Cooper Miles Patik, who was born a minute after her.
Tammy Patik couldn't think of anything better to be thankful for than her family that keeps growing in multiples of two.
Heather and Heidi's grandmother, Nancy Gimbel of Gillette, said people don't believe her when she tells them about her twin granddaughters who both now have sets of twins.
Her husband, Leroy Gimbel, said he is running out of room in his pickup truck to hang pictures of his great-grandchildren. Emerson and Cooper were number 12 and 13.
Pat Patik said twins are more fun for him as a grandparent.
"Everyone gets to hold one," he said.
The women never thought they would have twins, especially Heather. They believed in the myth that twins skip a generation.
"I didn't think it would happen," Heather said about a month before her twins were born. "After Heidi had them, I thought I was safe."
However, the women quickly found out there was little scientific evidence to support the old-fashioned belief.
In fact, if a mother is a fraternal twin, her chances of having twins increases about fivefold, according to "Twins" magazine.
Even though Heather and Heidi look identical, they are unsure if they are identical or fraternal twins.
It seems they were destined to be even more alike than having the same straight blond hair and blue eyes.
Growing up, Tammy Patik said her twin daughters always wanted to dress alike, had similar interests and even played the same sports while attending Centennial Junior High School and Kelly Walsh High School.
They even received the same psychology degree from the University of Wyoming.
"Besides (Heidi) being left-handed and me being right-handed, there aren't a lot of differences," Heather said.
Their grandmother said the only thing they didn't share was boyfriends.
Tammy Patik said even Heather and Heidi's husbands are similar having the same sense of humor and a love of children.
Heather said she and her sister looked so much alike when they were younger some people wouldn't talk to them, because they were unsure which twin was which.
However, they never played tricks on people by switching places, because they were shy as young girls.
The only person who seemed to be a recipient of their tricks was their black cat, Angel, who they dressed in Cabbage Patch Kids doll clothes and paraded around the neighborhood.
In elementary school, teachers recommended the girls be separated. They were until fourth grade.
"They forced us to be individuals by being in different classes," Heather said. "When we got back together, we were like glue."
Despite their strong similarities, several family members said Heidi held the role of leader and always went first, even if it was only because Heather refused to.
Heidi was the first one born — by eight minutes.
Their mother said Heather would always talk Heidi into going first for doctor's appointments and getting shots.
No wonder Heidi had her twins first, Tammy Patik and Heather said.
It was difficult for the twins when Heidi decided to move to Phoenix in 2000 for her husband's job, more than 1,000 miles away from her sister's home in Casper.
"We always had the next trip planned," Heidi said. "But when I had the girls, it got harder."
Although they have gotten used to being apart, Heidi said she sent her sister about five or six e-mails a day during most of Heather's pregnancy, especially after her sister stopped working as much.
And the last few weeks, as the birth approached, Heidi said the e-mails increased.
When Heather called Heidi to tell her how her ultrasound went, all she said was it went "doubly well."
Even though Heidi was a thousand miles away, she knew exactly what her that meant.
Heather found out she was having twins, six weeks into her pregnancy, and she said she hadn't told many people she was even pregnant.
Tammy Patik said everyone at Smith RV, where her and her husband work, probably heard them screaming about it when Heather told them.
"When we found out, we went out and bought a bassinet, another crib," Heather said.
Tammy Patik and Michael McKenna hugged each other and cried at Heidi's ultrasound when she found out she was having twins.
"We were getting very emotional," Tammy Patik said. "She was just going to find out the sex, but the nurse started pulling out books about twins."
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