process of family immigration to Montreal (Montréal)

Hi,
I am currently researching the process of Immigration to Montreal and to be honest I am getting quite overwhelmed and frightened by what looks like an expensive, lengthy and very uncertain process.
I have recently visited Montreal with my partner who is French and our 2 children. We fell completely in love with the city and in particular with the warm and generous welcome which we received there. For a long time we had a shared notion that perhaps Montreal might be a nice place to live in, mainly due to what we have been told by a number of friends that we know who come from the city. Now that we have visited the place and seen it for ourselves we have decided to begin gathering all we need for the process of immigration.
I would love to hear from any one who has been through this, in particular families. I have loads of perhaps silly questions which I can find answered on all the official websites.
Any advice, stories, help or links would be greatly appreciated.