Using my Bus Pirate, I was able to talk to the esp8266 and flash its firmware, then was able to connect it to my home wireless network and some testing. My end goal is to remove the Arudino from the design and just use the esp8266.

I also was able to create my own breakout board for my other esp8266-03 which has more of the pins broken out for use. I hope in the end to just use this version of the esp8266, it has a few GPIO pins I can use and from what I have been reading I think I could use 1-wire and others protocols on it to get the info I need from my sensors.