diff --git a/application/__init__.py b/application/__init__.py
index 1ee5c6a..74a4fe4 100644
--- a/application/__init__.py
+++ b/application/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
+import mongoengine
 from flask import Flask
-from flask_mongoengine import MongoEngine
 from flask_restx import Api
 
 from config import Config
@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@
 app.config.from_object(Config)
 
 # initiate the mongo engine
-db = MongoEngine()
-db.init_app(app)
+mongoengine.connect(
+    db=app.config["MONGODB_SETTINGS"]["db"],
+    host=app.config["MONGODB_SETTINGS"]["host"],
+)
 
 # initiate the API
 api = Api()
diff --git a/application/models.py b/application/models.py
index 938d5c1..57c1942 100644
--- a/application/models.py
+++ b/application/models.py
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
 import flask  # noqa: F401
+import mongoengine as db
 from werkzeug.security import check_password_hash
 from werkzeug.security import generate_password_hash
 
-from application import db
-
 
 class User(db.Document):
     """The model for holding the User objects in our Mongo DB."""
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index de5832d..ebaf119 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,5 @@
-# NOTE: upgrading Flask past 2.2.5 causes issues with flask-mongoengine
-# since Flask 3.0 completely removed the JSONEncoder class
-# which flask-mongoengine (version 1.0.0) still relies on this removed class
-# to handle JSON serialization for MongoDB objects.
-Flask==2.2.5
-flask-mongoengine==1.0.0
+email-validator==2.3.0
+Flask==3.1.2
 flask-restx==1.3.2
 Flask-WTF==1.2.2
 itsdangerous==2.2.0
@@ -11,7 +7,7 @@ Jinja2==3.1.6
 MarkupSafe==3.0.3
 mongoengine==0.29.1
 pre-commit==4.5.0
-pymongo==4.15.5
+pymongo>=4.0
 python-dotenv==1.2.1
 Werkzeug==3.1.4
 WTForms==3.2.1