trouble with brake pressure, brake bleeding newb Options

[Hammy]

In the process of bleeding the brakes.

Recently replaced some brake hard lines and rubber lines in the rear. They all appear to be holding up and secure.

What I am confused about is:
After bleeding all 4 calipers twice, the pedal is still not hard until it is pumped a few times.
Is this normal? Do I just need to bleed more until i get an immediate firm pedal? Or does it mean something else?

I'm wondering if it's one of the lines I replaced in the rear, yet none are leaking.

Do I need to bleed the Proportioning valve? If so, how do I do that?

Also, when bleeding, I have the tube on the bleeders and I crack them open. How much am I supposed to crack them open? Wide open? Or slightly? When they're open pretty far, air gets sucked in from the outside of the tube. Also, sometimes I get some brake fluid dripping and not going into the tube, and sometimes a lot leaks outside the tube. Is this normal for brake bleeding? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)
Thanks.

[Hammy]

Thanks for the reply and encouragement Brent.

I had my dad pumping the brakes for hours (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I've read the PP article, so I've got that method down.
The part that had the most dramatic change was stomping the pedal until it got hard and then holding it and cracking open the bleeders until the pedal dropped to the floor. That brought the pedal resistance up a little bit, but pumping was still needed to get any good pressure.

So I still can't understand why there's no immediate hard pedal until it's pumped 3 or 4 times. Could venting distance have anything to do with it? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) I know the pads are pretty far away from the disks right now, but that doesn't seem to explain the pumping for a hard pedal. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) I guess more bleeding? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)