How to say thanks you are my dear friend and i love you also in italian native speakers only please?

I am a 3rd generation italian american, My great gma and gpa came over from siciliy when they were teenagers just after they married and while they were pregnant with my nonna, anyway when I was young around 6 and 7 my great gma tried teaching me italian, however Im now gonna be 34 and I cant remember too much of what I was taught, as I got older 12, 13 I started rebelling and thinking my gma was crazy for having such pride in where she came from....I was embarred by it, because everywhere we went to eat she would ask if the cooks were italian, and any friend I had over she would ask their last name and if it was italian or seemed italian she would ask "are you related to" anyway it became embarring to me and I rebelled. Now im older and have my own daughter who I want desperately to know her heritage and how to speak our language. I know sicilians have a totally different dialect however i have found it near impossible to find any sicilian translations on the computer so I will be happy with italian. besides even though my grand ma was from Palermo, I believe her mom was from Naples. Mostly she refered to italian unless speaking of my gpa (her husband) who ped long before i was born. Please help!