2.0 overheating

My truck has been running hot lately past half way and around max. It is losing some coolant occasionally. All hoses are good and no obvious leaks. There is smoke coming out the breather whem it gets really hot. It does smoke a bit on start up but I figured thats the rings. The other day my dad was driving it and he said the temp gauge pegged for almost two miles and ge shut if off to cool it down. It has been having trouble starting lately and I don't know why. But now whenever I drive to work which is two miles away it gets right up to the h as I pull in the lot.. the fan is spinning and when I top off the radiator it runs like crap like it does when I first start it. Do you guys think I blew the head gasket? Or something more serious?

Yep, head gasket or cracked head. You won't know which, until you pull it apart.
But why did it start getting hot in the first place? If it only got hot on the highway, it might be radiator condition. Hot in stop and go traffic only, most likely fan clutch.

It was getting hot all the time and I figured it was low on coolant because it has an aluminum 2 row in it and never went to half way on The temp gauge. Something I forgot to mention is that when my dad ran it that day I popped the hood to let it cool and oil was everywhere. The only thing I could think of is it blew out the breather hole on the valve cover due to over heating. Sound right?

So I looked at it more today and it's hard to start like usual. My exhaust isn't fully connected where the pipe comes off the precat and where it connects to the pipe before the secondary cat and there was legitimate coolant leaking out from where the connections are loose. It was smoking white smoke alot and it doesn't smell like burnt oil so I'm guessing my coolant is going into the exhaust now?... also the thermostat wasn't opening so I removed it before running it and finding everything stated above. Any help or advice would be appreciated because this motor is a crate engine with no more than 1000 miles and I don't want to pull it apart if I don't have to