Parents Welcome New Year's Twins Born Minutes Apart, in Different Years

— -- Meet the proud parents who welcomed New Year’s twins born in different years: the oldest in 2016, and the other, minutes later, in 2017.

Utah couple Huyen Nguyen and Nick Criddle are celebrating the birth of their identical twin boys. Baby James came into the world Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m., while younger brother Matthew arrived Jan. 1 at 12:01, making him the first baby born in the state in the new year, officials at Davis Hospital and Medical Center told ABC Salt Lake City affiliate KTVX-TV.

Born in Layton, Utah, James weighed 5 pounds and Matthew was 5 pounds, 5 ounces.

The boys are the first children for Nguyen, 36, but numbers three and four for Criddle, 34, who has two daughters, Kaitlyn, 13, and Michelle, 11, from a previous marriage.

"Both of us are really happy," Criddle told ABC News today. "It was a surprise, definitely."

Nguyen and Criddle originally had a caesarean section scheduled for Jan. 11, but had to go in earlier because of medical complications, Criddle said.

The procedure began at 11:40 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

"It wasn't anything we tried to plan, but it's a fun story," Criddle said.

The boys will “look the same, talk to the same and this is something they can have that's different: a birth date, birth month and year,” he said. “The twins part was fun, too."

And they’re not alone.

Like newborns James and Matthew, Arizona twins Sawyer and Everett made their debut in different years.

Sawyer arrived at 11:50 p.m. Dec. 31. But 11 minutes later, at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, his brother, Everett, was born in the year 2017 to mom Holly Shay and dad Brandon Shay.

“I think Sawyer might give his brother a hard time,” Brandon Shay, the twins' father, told ABC Phoenix affiliate KNXV-TV. “I think it’s mostly going to be Sawyer teasing Everett over him being the eldest.”

Holly Shay gave birth at 37 weeks at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, Arizona. Sawyer was 5 pounds, 5 ounces and Everett was 4 pounds, 8 ounces, the hospital told ABC News.