Are you also getting events in your eventlog? Check these two possibilties.
 
http://www.wsuswiki.com/TroubleshootingWSUSInProduction
 
 http://www.wsuswiki.com/ContentFileDownloadFailedAccessDenied

Also
http://blogs.technet.com/sus/archive/2008/07/10/troubleshooting-wsus-clients.aspx
 
Client errors

In order to understand the failed status for a client machine, you need to check on the WSUS console to see what caused the failed status. Clicking on the affected machine on the bottom, middle pane will show the machine status with the failed update. Click on the failed update and check for any error messages. The 2 most common errors are download failed and installation failed 
Download failed is usually when the patch was not downloaded from the WSUS server to the client machine . Check the link on the Windowsupdate.log from the client machine and see if the patch is available on the <drive letter>:\WSUS\WSUSCONTENT folder on the WSUS server from the client.
For Installation failed you will need to check the error code and the log generated by the installation. On Windows XP it will be on c:\%windir%\kbXXXXXXX.log.
Lastly, try to install the patch manually to understand what is causing the failure if the message on the log is not clear.

Is there a way to check the WSUS server for a particular KB? Most of the windowsupdate.log says download failed. I just want to check if it's even on the server.

I would suggest finding out the reason for the failed download. Check eventvwr on WSUS server for any related errors.
 
Yes you can search for updates by highlighting all updates and right clicking and selecting search.

i believe the updates are either not downloaded or in a different path. is there a way to download the update manually and place into content folder? or is there a command to re-download the update?

since these 4 updates were approved so long ago, nothing shows up in the eventvwr

post these two logs
 
Wsyncmgr.log <<<<from the WSUS server
 
windowsupdate.log<<<<from a failed client
 
http://msmvps.com/blogs/athif/archive/2005/10/27/Purge-Delete-the-downloaded-patches-on-WSUS-Server.aspx 
you can use WSUSUTIL.exe Reset  which checks that every metadata row in the database has corresponding content stored in the file system.  If content is a missing or corrupted, WSUS downloads the content again.
WSUSUTIL.exe is installed C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools

MOST IMPORTANT
 
The option "Download update files to this server only when updates are approved" must be checked / selected or else, it will re-download those "not needed" updates,during the next sychronization schedule.
Open WSUSAdmin Console - Click on Options - Click on Synchronization Options - Scroll down to Update Files and Languages Section - Click on Advanced - Click OK - Select "Download update files to this server only when updates are approved" - Click OK and save settings.

I tried several times to post the windowsupdate.log but was too big. Here is an excerpt of one of the Windows Updates that failing.

2009-05-04    08:06:57:205    1172    f04    AU      # WARNING: Download failed, error = 0x80244019
2009-05-04    08:07:00:156    1172     d8    DnldMgr    WARNING: BITS job {9C9F8968-661E-4ED5-908C-6A96C75B61D8} failed, updateId = {3C4A3A1F-E61E-4E87-9EC4-E77A4212A807}.102, hr = 0x80190194, BG_ERROR_CONTEXT = 5
2009-05-04    08:07:00:156    1172     d8    DnldMgr      Progress failure bytes total = 0, bytes transferred = 0
2009-05-04    08:07:00:156    1172     d8    DnldMgr      Failed job file: URL = http://bak/Content/80/28E11CE4E9083F84C7B9903716904A94DC6B7280.exe, local path = C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\83f2004544abb3aad898c7079ac172e1\WindowsXP-KB952004-x86-ENU.exe
2009-05-04    08:07:00:204    1172     d8    DnldMgr    Error 0x80244019 occurred while downloading update; notifying dependent calls.
2009-05-04    08:07:00:204    1172    f04    AU    >>##  RESUMED  ## AU: Download update [UpdateId = {0F4FB382-5878-48C5-B7A4-C70F8EB0D7C6}]
2009-05-04    08:07:00:204    1172    f04    AU      # WARNING: Download failed, error = 0x80244019
2009-05-04    08:07:02:362    1172    e30    Report    REPORT EVENT: {D68EC426-0A96-4895-B21B-F84E8552AF5A}    2009-05-04 08:06:57:332-1000    1    161    101    {9D729479-604C-4330-B0EC-EB204C0B80F3}    102    80244019    AutomaticUpdates    Failure    Content Download    Error: Download failed.
2009-05-04    08:07:02:362    1172    e30    Report    REPORT EVENT: {70A3F318-2CA8-46D2-BE65-06B682FD33D5}    2009-05-04 08:07:00:204-1000    1    161    101    {0F4FB382-5878-48C5-B7A4-C70F8EB0D7C6}    102    80244019    AutomaticUpdates    Failure    Content Download    Error: Download failed.


I also did a search for Wsyncmgr.log on my WSUS server and was not able to find this log. Could you tell me where its suppose to be? I have WSUS 3.0 SP1.

what is even more strange is that I manually installed KB952004 on one of my servers and in the event log it shows as being installed, but when I open WSUS Console, it is showing up as "Failed"

Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    NtServicePack
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    4377
Date:        7/23/2009
Time:        11:48:18 AM
User:        ATA\root
Computer:    BAK
Description:
Windows Server 2003 Hotfix KB952004 was installed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

It appears you need to fix the SelfUpdate virtual directory
http://blogs.msdn.com/jjameson/archive/2008/04/08/wsus-clients-failing-with-error-0x80244019-after-installing-wsus-sp1.aspx 

after manually installing the failed updates on the server above, it didn't update the WSUS server at first, but when I checked today, it no longer shows up on my failed update list. i guess it was a glitch in WSUS server or client (still don't know which one is the culprit) for these 4 updates.

It was really manually installing the updates on each computer which is a hassle. I really wanted to have WSUS do it but there is so little documentation when it comes to troubleshooting. Thanks for your help!